


Arahitogami Hajimemashita

by FeckedSpectrum



Category: Kamisama Hajimemashita | Kamisama Kiss
Genre: Alternate Universe, Domestic, Dysfunctional Relationships, F/M, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-03-06 18:45:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 24,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3144650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FeckedSpectrum/pseuds/FeckedSpectrum
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kayako is just a normal 16 year old girl, if you think being the head of a clan of psychics worshiped as a living god is normal. However, her life spirals even further into the weird after meeting a retiring war god who insists she take his place and run his shrine, look after his aging shrine maiden, and keep his bloodthirsty familiar from going on a rampage.</p>
<p>500 years ago, Akura-ou was a notorious and feared demon, untouchable even for the Gods. But that changed when his brother Tomoe betrayed him, and helped the Gods obtain him. After failing to kill him, a minor War God decided to bind him in a contract. Centuries passed, Akura-ou's thirst for blood grows less manageable as the threat of yokai decreases and the world becomes more peaceful. It was at this time that the War God decided to retire, finding he had grown too attached to the familiar to see the outcome of Akura-ou's blood-thirst clashing with such a peaceful era, and chose a strong-headed young woman to take his place.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Living God Levels Up

The canvas straps of the laden grocery bags twisted and pinched, crushing her fingers together in a vice. She didn't correct it, too busy stewing in the pressure that was mounting, twisting her up inside.

She spent all day listening to the problems of the people, from lonely grandmothers to stressed-out businessmen, listening and speaking and calming until she had nothing compassionate left inside her, and then she continued on. She pulled at her lips and softened her eyes until her face ached, left irritated and hollow at the end of the day, to find that her flighty parents had forgotten her as completely as they did the empty refrigerator, sending her out to buy groceries to make her own dinner.

They hated her, they honestly did. They taught her how to play nice and lie with a pleasant smile, but she wasn't some simple girl who had the privilege of believing her parents loved her. She was a psychic, one so powerful that she knocked her mother off her throne as the Hiiragi clan's head before graduating middle school. On that fateful day she was tested against the rest of her family, holding a dumbbell to the vaulted ceiling with only her mind. She looked to her mother with so much pride, _Look at what you've taught me_ , and saw only a cold hatred.

She hadn't forgotten it. She could never see her family without seeing the same expression. _That Kayako, embarrassing her own mother like that._ _Sure, she has the gift, but you can see she doesn't have a heart._

It didn't matter what they thought. Even if she was a monster, she had expectations and duties to fulfill. Even if she stood more alone than any Hiiragi before her, she had to serve. She could not hesitate. She could not sulk. She could not have a bad day.

_And she could not take it anymore!_

Her thigh spun the bag even tighter around her hand, and in a white and furious pain, she threw it off.

But for once, she made a mistake. Bean sprouts tumbled out onto the ground in a wiry heap, tin cans clattered onto the ground in either drum roll or applause. The poor old man in front of her stayed frozen, hands slowly curling over the back of his skull, the point of impact.

Cold panic seized her, but she paid it no mind, rushing to the man and babbling apologies. “I'm so sorry – are you okay – I'll call a doctor – I'll pay the taxi fare – sir?” He looked up at her in shock, and she felt her heart stop.

He wasn't human.

She threw herself onto the ground, forehead firm against the sidewalk in a prostration of absolute respect. “I am so sorry!”

He was a god.

“Oh ho ho, that thing? I was taken by surprise, but if a grocery bag had taken me out, I really wouldn't be able to live it down,” the old man chuckled, patting her head so gently it was as though he hardly touched her. “It's really fine, please let me take a look at you.” She sat up, fully aware that if she blinked now, the tears in her eyes would overflow. He beamed, a familiar glimmer in his brown eyes. “My, what a beautiful attacker you are!”

Kayako felt a shudder down her spine. She just attacked a god, but not just any god. He was a perverted old man!

“I suppose I'm getting too old to keep up to date about going-ons in my own city. I see you are a new Hiiragi. So young and powerful too!” He patted her hands, absently folded in her lap. “Would you mind walking me to my shrine? Normally I would let you attend to your dinner, but since most of your groceries are dirty now, it seems only fitting that I treat you to mine.”

“It's really fine, it was my fault anyway-”

“Oh!” the god groaned, holding his temple. “Oh, sorry, for interrupting, I just had a dizzy spell from my injury, it's really nothing. I suppose I can _try_ to find my own way back home-”

“No,” Kayako interrupted, inwardly wincing. “Please, let me help you.”

The man beamed at her, as she remembered her first lesson as a Hiiragi heir. _People only smile when they get something they want. A Hiiragi has to smile when they give it to them._

 

* * *

 

She didn't bother calling her parents to tell them she would be back late, but as the night drew on and the old god's pace slowed to a crawl, she began to regret her decision. They might be worried, or at least perfecting their tactics to shame her. _You were gone for hours, we were so worried! Not only are you our only child, but our clan's head! How could we face the rest of the family if you didn't come back!_

They would face them easily. Mother would boo-hoo into a handkerchief, always too prettily to be truly sorrowful, then choke out her dramatic conclusion. _There is no choice. In honor of my beloved child, in her memory, I will lead the Hiiragi clan. It's what Kayako would have wanted._

“What a terrible expression!” the old man said, catching her glare at her mother's imagined hysterics. “Whatever were you thinking about?”

“It's nothing,” Kayako said, waving a hand and smiling gently, trying to placate him.

“I don't suppose you're used to a stubborn old man like myself! When a girl says it's nothing, it's everything! It's a terrible catastrophe! So, I'll ask again: Whatever were you thinking about?” He gawked again. “And what is that expression as well! You look surprised!”

“I...” she trailed off, staring at the old man. “You honestly want to hear what I think?”

“And that's a strange thing to you?” He huffed. “Hiiragis! They must have really fallen off the deep end since Ryouta-kun's time! All that compassion and servitude to the outside but showing a little concern for a young girl like you gets me that look! You're honestly surprised that someone cares!”

“I am,” Kayako answered. “No one has ever asked me that without wanting to hear that I'm fine.”

“You're obviously not! And far too young to be so tightly strung! You're extraordinarily lucky that you bowled over old Hachiman here rather than some helpless old man. An oni couldn't split my skull with his favorite club, but you probably could have!”

She couldn't bring herself to move, eyes almost springing out of their sockets. “Hachiman! Hachiman-gami?!”

“Yes, didn't I tell you? Well, I suppose I didn't. Don't look so shocked now, I'm well past my prime. I'm really just managing this shrine for the current god of war. Retiring, if you will.”

Kayako said nothing, remembering all the tales of divine punishment a person could suffer for merely looking at or talking about a god disrespectfully. She threw a bag full of groceries at the god of war, and after she died, that was all anyone would remember her for.

“Kind of,” the god shrugged guiltily. “There isn't exactly paperwork for it. I was _the_ god of war but now I'm _a_ god of war. Usually retirement means getting killed or simply fading into a reincarnation, but with the way things are now, I'm not going to get clubbed or stabbed in any good battle.” He turned away, worryingly, “Which is a much bigger problem than I really want to say.”

“I suppose it is,” Kayako said, trying to hold his gaze, softening her eyes and trying to find the right smile that read as optimistic and empathetic. “I can't really understand what it is to be a god, but such expectations must be difficult for you.”

It seemed to work, as he began to return her smile. “What a dear child. I'm truly sorry to bother you with my old griping, but I do need you to do one more thing for me.”

“Of course,” she said, leaning down to meet his height and placing a hand on his shoulder. She remembered the routine, _Understand, Smile, Touch, Give without thinking of anything but the person in front of you._

His hand covered hers, leathery skin loose over his bones. “My shrine is in the middle of the block if you go ahead and turn right. Would you please go inside and ask the miko, Umeko, to read the grocery list I left on my desk?”

“Of cour-” Kayako began to say, then stopped as the old man took her hand and kissed it. Her body felt like it was glowing, dizziness building through her, but as soon as she blinked, the old man was gone.

She was able to ignore the strange encounter as she walked absent-mindedly to the shrine. It was not the shrine to Hachiman that any Kyoto native thinks of, the grand red and gold Iwashimizu Hachimangu stretching into the lively green forest behind it, like a king upon a throne. This one looked more like an afterthought, a last-minute prayer to the fisherman's god after several fish market stalls failed to find business at the same location. A splintery tori replaced the business logo and a small rock garden sat neglected in a small and narrow rectangle, framed by the concrete sidewalk and crates stacked in front of the neighboring business.

She had never seen a shrine at night that wasn't illuminated by festival lanterns. The windows inside were dark, and the small space didn't seem like it had seen visitors in years. The near-abandoned karaoke bar and greasy food stand that stood on either side of the shrine seemed more inviting.

Even as she knocked on the sliding doors, noticing the paper was pulling away from the frame, she had to force back even greater suspicions. The old man could be a lure for a gang, whose members would be sitting inside the abandoned shrine, waiting with drunken leers and sharp pocket knives.

She had never doubted her powers before, not once, but she was willing to believe that the old man's aura was simply a mistake. That somehow she wished for the entire encounter as a forced vision.

The old man had asked how she felt. He asked for an honest answer. He had to be a fake.

The door slid open enough for a little old woman with a large age spot on her cheek to poke her head through, staring at Kayako. “Oh, dear. Seeing a young girl like you at this time of night gave me a scare, I thought you'd be in a bad way, knocking on doors at this time of night.”

“Sorry to bother you, but is there a miko named Umeko here?” She knew as soon as she said it that she wouldn't be able to walk in this side of town again. The old woman must think she was crazy.

Instead, she looked a different kind of stricken. “Oh dear. You're not what I expected at all.” Regaining herself, she opened the door fully, revealing the white haori and red hakama of a shrine maiden. “I am Umeko, come in and let me make something for you to eat.”

She had hardly stepped across the threshold, taking the sight of a dated living room lit by a gas lantern beside a ripped sofa that looked like it was rejected by every thrift store, before she saw the cause of the base fear that had been rippling through her since setting eyes on this accursed shrine.

A wild mane of red hair, framed by two curved white horns, turned around from the dark floor of the living room. What she thought was a dark rug was a black jacket, lifting upwards as the figure rose. A yawn parted his jagged teeth, lined with black lips as his gleaming golden eyes were with kohl. “Oi, is that dumbass replacing you already, Umeko-chan? I'll beat the crap out of him, you've got 20 good years left before I'll let you go out to pasture.”

“Th-th-that- _that_ ,” Kayako started, her voice shaking much like her body was, no matter how hard she tried to fight it. “ _That is an oni._ ”

“Ah yes, this is Akura, he's Hachiman-sama's familiar.”

“ _That_.”

“Akura-ou-sama to you, little girl. And you too, Umeko!” the beast growled, glaring at the old woman who simply ignored him.

“Oh dear, I forgot to ask your name-”

“ _That thing is not a familiar!_ ” she cried out, unable to believe the situation she had willingly walked into. “Holy animals are familiars – snakes, doves, wolves, foxes! _Oni_ _cannot be familiars_!”

“Oh really?” the demon said, finally revealing his true nature as his face darkened and his voice dropped its playful tone.

“Akura, please,” Umeko interjected, like a mother trying to calm two squabbling children. Kayako did not understand how she could be so calm (alive even!) with a horrible demon right in her living room! “Don't tell me you didn't snoop around and find that note Hachiman-sama left.”

“The one that explains why that little girl has his God's Mark? Nope, didn't read it, which is why I'm still wondering if I have to rip it out of her.”

She didn't even hear what he said before he threatened her, as she threw him through the door with a flick of her wrist. He rolled head over heels over the wreckage of wood frame and torn paper before finding himself gracefully righted, hopping back on one foot, _giggling_.

“Oh ho ho! _Now_ she's interesting!”

“Akura-san, get back inside so we can have some calming tea and talk this through, _calmly_ ,” Umeko shouted, nowhere near calm. She had dropped her tone as a placating mother and now moved to one of a mother threatening discipline. _You get back here before I count to 3! One..._

“Nope, not gonna happen!” _Two..._ “Seeing as my contract is up and the night is _so nice_ , I think I'll just take my leave.”

_Three!_

_“AKURA!”_ Umeko called, but it amounted to nothing but confused stares from a couple exiting the karaoke bar.

The demon had vanished into thin air.


	2. Invite Character to Join Guild

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kayako finds a reason to go after the ex-familiar, as an old foe tracks him down.

      Umeko's fingers danced around her cup of tea as she gave her a strained smile. “So, your name is Hiiragi Kayako.” Kayako smiled back at her, sending back a message with her mind, _Please calm down_. “You were chosen by Hachiman-sama to be the god of this shrine.” _Please don't be angry._ “And Akura-ou-sama has run away before you could seal him in a contract.”

      Kayako still couldn't find a response, shell-shocked and worn out by the night's events, so she held her smile. The old woman in front of her folded in on herself, head on the table with her thin arms cradled around it.

      “ _This could not get any worse._ ”

      It was time to fall back to the Rescue Attempt. When a Hiiragi faces a hysterical person or simply spaces out, the Rescue Attempt is meant to calm the person by asking for a reasoned, logical path through the problem, or tries to save enough respect that it could all be chalked up to a bad day. “I'm sorry, I'm quite new to this situation and I don't exactly understand what's affecting you so terribly.”

      Umeko sighed, lifting herself up with great effort to rub her hands over her temples in circular movements. Her gray hair was turning white at the temples, pulled tight into a bun. It was honestly too tight, and bound to give her a headache. “Akura-ou-sama is not an ideal familiar, as you well know. He's brutish, ill-mannered, egocentric, messy, disrespectful...” She stopped herself from giving a full list. “I don't understand the full story, but what I do know is that he _has_ to be here, as a familiar. Terrible things will happen if he isn't. Hachiman-sama knows the full story, but he clearly handled this very poorly. I wish I could say that's unlike him, but it's not.”

      “It must feel like you're the only capable person around this shrine,” Kayako said, ignoring the tea in front of her to focus on reading the woman's history through her aura.

      It warmed from dark green to blue as she brightened, then returned to pensive. “Akura is _not_ going to like you. Something about you, your sweet nature. You're a pretty young girl too, that had something to do with the incident."

      “What incident?” she asked, too aware of the fear creeping into her own aura, blocking her sight. 

      “He was a real yokai before he met Hachiman-sama, the kind that they don't even tell stories about. Murdering, pillaging, not the kind of villain in kid's stories that are simple nuisances. He was terrible,” the old woman said, leaning closer like all elders do when they turn to gossip. “There was something about a young lady back then. She was beautiful, as they all are in these kinds of tales. The kind of beauty that was talked about in all the country. There was something about a fox demon too, and a really terrible fight between them. Of course, it had to be about the beautiful lady. But somehow things turned about so that Akura-ou-sama became Hachiman's familiar, and he has to be kept here to keep from turning back into that old monster. A familiar contract can tame even demons like that!” She waved her hand as if to dispel her words like smoke. “But you didn't hear it from me.”

      “I have to make a contract with that oni?” Kayako said, inwardly thinking _I have to deal with that kind of guy?!_

      “No,” a new voice answered.

      They both turned to see a figure draped in robes standing in the empty doorway, though it had an ethereal look that made the act of merely standing in the forsaken shrine seem wrong. Despite the low, masculine voice, it was a woman with pale blue hair falling loosely over her shoulders and halfway into a looping bun, with large wolf-like ears and tail covered in the same unnatural hair. Her black eyes struck through Kayako as they met her gaze.

      “Ikusagami-sama saw that Hachiman-sama broke the contract with the demon. I came to pick up his trail and inform you that he will not be coming back. You can return to your human lives when this is over.”

     “What do you mean, Akura isn't coming back?” Umeko asked, clutching her hands together in new worry. She actually cared about the demon, the very one she said had killed and rampaged?

      “His respite is over. Izumo's judgment will fall upon his head with my sword,” the holy beast answered, hand falling on the hilt of a katana that was hidden when her arm was at her side. “As it would have been if not for Hachiman's groveling at that time.”

     The familiar had not looked away from Kayako, now staring at her hand.

     “I will take that mark, as well as the burden of this pathetic shrine,” she promised, turning away to disappear as the demon and god did before her.

_A wolf familiar_. The psychic thought, still staring into the street as if to watch for the great beast with graying fur and sharp teeth that had folded itself into the woman with wolf-like ears and tail. _A wolf familiar is going to kill that oni. And then take this God's Mark away from me._

     Later on, she would wish that she had looked at Umeko's fearful face and wringing hands, and say that she had acted out of compassion towards the old woman who would be cast out of the shrine, her home.

    Kayako wasn't compassionate. Compassion wasn't a comfort.

    Power was.

    And once Kayako felt that power spinning in her hands, dancing along her fingertips, she always grabbed it.

    She wouldn't let it be taken away.

 

* * *

 

    There was a certain tome in the home of every Hiiragi family. Elders studied it, fingers sliding over names like old yearbooks and newspaper obituaries. Children learned to read from it. 

    It was an encyclopedia of every member of the Hiiragi clan, spanning back to its birth with Hiiragi Ichiro, the son of a feudal lord's unwed daughter in 1237, who could predict an army's tactics a week before a battle. For this talent, he was accepted by his grandfather, and with his successors began the real Hiiragi clan.

    The volume was carefully written throughout the ages, recently given an index and appendices by someone forgotten, a member without any talent to be considered as the head. One table lists less than 10 names, the names of Hiiragis who had willingly visited the world of Yokai.

    Kayako's mother was on that list, with the smallest number beside her name. She was 26 years old, a prodigy that would lead the clan until her last breath faded away.

    Kayako's name would be added in the next edition, with her age next to it. 9 years old.

    She had wanted to run away from home because her mother was in a bad mood. Her father didn't comfort her like he used to in those all-too-familiar evenings. He was worn too thin, simply holding his head in one hand while the other scribbled away with the monthly budget. She was sent to her room for having a disrespectful tone towards her mother, her elder, her clan's head, but she didn't want to stay there.

   The darkness of a human's mind invites the darkness of the Yokai world, meeting like pools of water spilled on a sidewalk. Kayako's mind was always dark enough to find that boundary point, and cross it fluidly. 

    The Yokai world overlaid the human world, so that when one crosses the boundary, they usually find themselves in a corresponding point in the other world. She asked Umeko to wait for her near the street where Akura-ou had disappeared, as her tether back to the human world. She could still call to the old woman's aura, feel it growing farther away as she walked. Once she found the oni, she would have to play psychic Hot or Cold to find her way back.

    If she survived.

    She might have taken him by surprise when she threw him through the door earlier, but he hadn't retaliated. He may have felt it was beneath him. Even with her abilities, which were considerable, she was little more than a bug to him. He obviously had better opponents to think about, like the wolf familiar.

    The straggling creatures that ran past her didn't surprise her as she continued walking, arriving to some sort of demon village. At least, it once was a village, now made of broken walls and burning roofs. It wasn't surprising, given what she heard about Akura-ou.

    Seeing the red haired demon growling in the street with a spear through his stomach? That was rather surprising.

    “Been waiting for this day, haven't you Tadashi?” He said, pausing as he hacked up a mouthful of blood. “Waiting like I have. Waiting to pull my head off and scurry back to your frilly little god, tail wagging.”

     The familiar walked into Kayako's view from behind the corner of a small shack. A long silver sword, gleaming with more than just the light from burning buildings, was not yet stained with blood. The wolf stopped short of the spear, and in an instant the head of it was buried in the ground, Akura-ou still dangling from the angled staff, the end of it tucked against the woman's sandal.

     Tadashi's head rolled fluidly to the side, regarding the oni with triumph. “I don't know what rules you more, your honesty or stupidity. Could you simply not lie to that little girl when you bowed and scraped to her, or did you honestly think you could run off without being killed?”

     “I'm an immortal with a pretty good history for not getting killed,” the demon answered, holding the weapon that held him half-lying on the ground.

     “Yet, you haven't met my blade,” Tadashi purred, pointing it at her prey. “It also has a good history of ending things that deem themselves immortal.”

     Kayako was only able to register the flicker of the sword reaching over the woman's blue ears, pausing at its zenith before it would swing towards the yokai. That mere second, and the fact that neither creature had recognized her yet, was all she needed.

     She had sprinted halfway to the pinned oni when the familiar hit the ground, all of her strength only managing to give them 20 meters' distance. She should have thrown the woman upwards instead of straight, giving them a few more seconds as she fell.

     The demon hadn't yet turned to look at her when Kayako slid to her knees, grabbed his chin to hold him still, and kissed him.

     It was only a second, if that, before she pulled back, wiping her mouth furiously to get rid of the blood before she retched. Akura-ou took a little longer to respond, unnaturally still before he started babbling, “What – what – _what_ _the hell_?!”

     The wolf woman walked slowly towards them, blade still in hand.

     “ _You – what the hell – you stupid woman_!”

     Kayako didn't allow herself to shrink back, didn't allow herself to tremble or look at that shining blade. She held the woman's gaze firmly, still aware of the blood cloying to her face. “I am a living god of war, and Akura-ou is bound to my will.”

     “I see,” the wolf answered at last, taking the spear in hand. As she did so, it splintered into glowing dust, falling into the air to disburse and fade. “I will return to Ikusagami-sama, Lady Kayako,” she said, fading away yet again.

     The oni flinched as his wound began to seal with a wisp of smoke, then seized her arm in his bloody hand, claws sharp against her skin. “Let go!” she ordered, and he obeyed, pulling his hand back in shock.

      “You – _you –_ _agh_!” he growled, collapsing to the ground, staring at the sky in defeat. “I don't like you,” he whined. She couldn't help but stare at him. He was acting like a child in a silent tantrum.

     “My feelings toward you haven't changed, but I've found that if I'm going to be a god, you're part of the package.” She pulled herself to her feet, dusting her arms and checking to see if he had wounded her when he grabbed her, finding no soreness but plenty of blood. “Stand up, take me back to the shrine, and _deal with it_." 

      He glared, then resolved not to look at her again. Even as Umeko gaped at them, fussing over the blood on him and the hole through his clothes where the spear pierced him (“ _You should really learn how to mend your clothes like you do your body, your dear jacket might not be salvageable this time!_ ”) he kept his back turned to her, sulking into a room in the back, which should not really exist with the small size of the shrine. 

     “Well, he did leave you first rights to the bath,” the miko said, smiling though she seemed concerned at the blood on Kayako. “I'll keep guard at the door so he doesn't barrel in anyway. He's scared off a lot of shrine girls like that.”

      She had washed herself and been welcomed to Umeko's spare toothbrush and robes, lying on a futon in yet another room that shouldn't exist, ignoring her phone as it danced with missed calls as the sun began to rise. She didn't understand it.

     She had given away her first kiss to a demon covered in blood.


	3. Level 1 Boss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The oldest members of the shrine talk about the new arrival, and Kayako goes to see her mother.

 

“My sister really should have had some girls,” Umeko muttered into her odd little stew simmering on the stove. “I know how teenage boys are, but handling girls isn't my strong suit. I only know about being one, and that's entirely different from handling one.”

“Hmph,” Akura-ou grunted, trying to figure out a way to make the old woman to stop talking about that stupid girl, as she had for the past three hours. “You weren't very good looking when you were a girl, _so long_ ago. Bumps all over your face, smelled bad, trembling everywhere when you stared at me, ' _Aah, it's the great Bloodthirsty King!_ '”

She knew his tactics too well, glaring only for a minute before she smiled sweetly. “I don't recall ever calling you great at anything, dear. You must be getting fuzzy in your old age, how old are you again?”

“Thousand and something,” he grumbled, leaning back until the chair threatened to spill him out, putting his legs on the on the counter, his feet too close to the stew for Umeko's liking. He liked the warmth steaming up on his toes. “I've been around Hachiman for what, 509 years, 132 days? Who's counting, really?”

“It must be difficult to be the only dependable familiar for so long,” she said in an oddly fair voice, fluttering her eyelashes.

“The hell is that?”

“Something the dear girl said,” the miko answered, laughing softly. “I knew you'd hate it. You always hate the sweet ones, Hachiman-sama said so. You'd probably cry when they died, which is why we get along so well. An ugly mean girl turns into an ugly old crone, then an ugly old pile of bones. You'll just carry on as always.”

“You've got 20 more years, woman,” wagging a finger at her for thinking about her retirement. “And like hell I'd ever cry.”

“I wonder how that girl is doing,” Umeko muttered, turning again to the stew as if cooking it would cure her worries. “I didn't think to ask about her family. They must be worried sick, since she's been missing all night and half the day. Girls are wilder than they were in my time, but surely being gone into the day is something to worry over.”

“Maybe they'll take her away,” Akura-ou said, grinning as he thought of the possibilities. Two stern adults grabbing the girl kicking and screaming, dragging her out into the street to lock her in a dark room. Letting her fester there, ignoring her pleas for forgiveness that grew weaker until she crumpled into a loose, lifeless sack of innards, starved to death. Perhaps they'd beat her instead.

The old woman sighed, and it stung in familiarity. He was starting to hate the way she was used to his antics, and bored with it. It was too much like the kitsune, and even though he had nothing to fear from this human, the sighs and disappointed looks still read ' _This is bad, you need to stop now before it gets worse, before it hurts_.'

A voice made its way to the front of the shrine, raised enough to hear but not quite enough to understand. The girl was yelling at something, and he caught Umeko leaning away from her work to try to catch the words. He grinned at her, the old gossip, kicking his feet off the counter so that he could walk towards the hallway, to the girl's door. He wasn't surprised that the old woman followed him, mouthing at him to stop, but pressed her ear to the door nonetheless. He didn't have to, leaning against the wall to give her a smart look that she ignored.

“Yes, I know I wasn't there to counsel the clients – Yes, there's 43 missed appointments – Mrs. Mori is – Mother, I know – Mother please – Mom, just...”

If Umeko pressed her face any closer to the door, there would be an imprint on it. He almost laughed at the old woman, but a soft, broken sound stopped him.

“I'm sorry...Mom, don't...I know,” the girl whimpered.

That wasn't the girl who stared down Tadashi, the most feared familiar in Izumo. That wasn't even the scared little girl who threw him through a door.

“I'm sorry that I failed. I am a disgrace to the Hiiragi name. I don't have the right to call you my mother,” she said, too firmly for her previous sobbing to be real. That was rehearsed, but made sharp by her teeth gritted in pain.

Akura-ou was grateful for being an orphan. He also felt giddy about the girl's suffering, listening to her comeuppance. He knew enough to hide that from Umeko, whose eyes were getting watery already.

“I'll return to the Hiiragi shrine right now,” the voice said, growing louder with the sound of approaching footsteps. Akura-ou grabbed Umeko around the waist with one arm, silencing her with another hand around her mouth as he pulled them both back into the front of the shrine, pushing the miko back towards the kitchen while he jumped onto his favorite sofa.

He barely arranged himself to feign sleep by the time the girl thundered through, hair loose and wild with salt still clinging to the sleepless bruising under her eyes. Of course, she had wiped away the tears and painted on a smile, but the only one she could lie to was herself.

Umeko was right, he really would hate her.

“I apologize for making a terrible first impression in sleeping so late and running off, but there are things that I have to attend to with my duty as the Hiiragi clan's head. I will return as soon as I can,” the girl said, voice firm and steady as she bowed to Umeko. She didn't notice that the old woman was trying not to cry out of sympathy.

“Of course dear,” the miko managed to choke out, busying herself with the stew again.

Then the girl turned to him, eyes blazing and made more frightening with their redness. “You are not to leave this shrine, nor harm anyone in or near it, until I return.”

The finality of the command gripped him tightly, tighter than any vague little threat should have, but he caught her before she got to the door. “Oi! I'm a familiar of a regional god, whenever there's an idiot yokai running around, I'm supposed to kill it!”

It was the only reason he was able to live so long as a familiar without dying of boredom.

“Some of your dear little worshipers could get killed if I'm stuck in the shrine all day. That's pretty damaging to your new reputation, little god.”

She glowered at him, sharpening her beady little eyes between her eyelashes. “Fine, you cannot leave Kyoto, and you cannot allow any harm to come to any human therein.”

He still flinched as she left. He'd have to have words with the brat about divine commands. Hers were too strong, striking him in the gut like a fist.

He couldn't help the grin creeping over his face as he watched her hurry over the sidewalk, trying not to run to her mother. Curiosity was such a bad, terrible thing for him to have. It had gotten him into some terrible situations, not the least of which his current role as a damn familiar.

“My, don't you think something terrible might happen to our dear god?” he said, turning to Umeko as she gawked at him, knowing what he had done. “And do you think the little brat lives in Kyoto?”

 

* * *

 

Mrs. Mori would have made a great Hiiragi. The widow caught her at the door of the commercial building that rented space to the Hiiragi clan for psychic readings and spiritual counseling. The woman held her arm gently, asking her if she was alright with such a motherly tone that Kayako was tempted to fall into her arms and cry.

“I'm terribly sorry for this, a client had a crisis and I just got back. I'm really fine, thank you so much for your concern.”

She shouldn't have said “so much,” it was enthusiastic but needy. She couldn't appear needy to worshipers, they came to have their needs met. They couldn't be thinking of her needs, thinking of her as a person. She wasn't a person, she was a Hiiragi.

Kayako held every muscle in her body as tightly as she could in the elevator, refusing to tremble. Her mother wasn't even trying to hold back her anger, she was broadcasting it directly at the person she hated most - her daughter.

Kayako had been so careful before, if not perfect in her duties. She had never missed an appointment, even when she was so feverish that she was dizzy and so ill that she puked between sessions. Her mother's hatred had no real target, simply waiting in the back of her eyes, waiting for that day that she slipped up.

She might not survive her mother today.

Even as she shut off her frantic emotions, closing her eyes and trying to find the logical path through this ordeal, the base of her spine still tingled with instinctive fear. Even if she jumped between two yokai in battle last night, even if she was able to sleep with a murderous oni in the same building, separated by mere walls, she was afraid. This wasn't a demon or a familiar. This was her _mother_.

“Kayako, I was so worried about you!” her mother cried, rushing forward as soon as the elevator doors opened to grab her in a quick embrace, settling her hands over her shoulders. Rin, a particularly weak Hiiragi, was acting as the receptionist, and was the only audience her mother was trying to fool. The middle-aged woman with an ill-advised bob cut was nearly weeping from the show. Poor woman believed it, and that was all the proof Kayako would have needed to cut her out of the family name. No one with even the smallest psychic sense would have missed the searing heat of Hiiragi Kyou's anger now.

“I apologize for not explaining over the phone,” Kayako placated, wearing the guilty face for Rin's rapt attention. She hadn't been able to explain over her mother's screaming. “But I do have an explanation.”

“Rin, dear, isn't it close to lunch?” Kyou interjected, pleading with her cousin, silently playing the perfect mother. _I have to speak with my daughter privately, you understand, right?_

“Oh, yes it is, I was just on my way out,” Rin answered, grabbing her purse with one hand and setting the phone to go to voice mail with the other. “Would you like me to pick up something? Have you eaten, Kayako?”

“We'll leave together soon enough,” Kyou lied, and with that Rin was out the door, taking her perfect, caring mother out with her. “How dare you?”

It wasn't a question, and Kayako didn't answer, instead wondering if she should stop her before the lecture really came on, or if it was better to let the storm rage out.

“How dare you? _How dare you do this to me_? You stole the role of the head just to spite me, I know you did. I remember that little smirk you wore, how happy you were to see me falter. But you can't take it, you're not strong enough. You don't have the heart for it, instead you decide to run around town doing whatever scandalous things popped into your head,” Kyou said, shaking Kayako's shoulders. “I don't want to hear about them! I don't care! You're resigning as the head, and I will cut you out of the records as soon as you leave this place.”

“I'm taking the worshipers with me,” Kayako promised, almost smiling at the wide-eyed devastation dawning on her mother's face. “I didn't tell you, did I? And you're too weak to see it, so I'll tell you. I'm a real god now, not some imagined title you made up for marketing.” She held up her hand as if she were showing her mother a perfect manicure, but Kyou shrank back in horror, the vice-like grip on her shoulders fading as if it was never there.

“How – _How could you_?” she whimpered, hand fluttering around her collarbone. Kayako had never seen her mother like this, never truly defeated her. She wanted to hold on to the victory, hold on to the pain she had felt only moments before, but real guilt was roiling inside of her, turning her stomach to lead. “How could you _hurt me_ _like this_?”

“It's what we do, mother,” Kayako said, keeping her voice from faltering. She ignored the guilt, the pain, the longing to wrap her arms around her mother as if she would hold her back. “You raised me well, didn't you?”

She expected more accusations, or more words to come that would tip Kayako forward and down to her knees to take back her own. Instead, she heard a sob, choking out from Kyou's throat as she folded in completely, knees hitting the ground before she turned to her side and wailed. “ _Not the worshipers_.”

The pain that drew tears into Kayako's eyes numbed her previous regrets. How could she think she could comfort her mother when she was just the hated, unfortunately gifted daughter who stole her mother's loving audience? How could she ever compare to that glowing look of adoration the worshipers held? How could she ever fill that void as merely an unwanted daughter? “I'm leaving you, mother.”

She was lucky that the elevator was still waiting behind her, providing a dramatic exit. She had heard it disappear with Rin then reappear halfway through her mother's tirade, though the doors were still closed. When she pressed the button to request to go down, the doors slid open to reveal it was empty, and she stepped in.

Before she could press the ground floor number, the doors closed behind her, and she held a startled noise in her throat when she saw she was not alone.

“A bit harsh,” Akura-ou muttered, crossing his arms.

She wished she had the strength to be surprised, even outraged that he was here, but the few hours she had slept were now draining her without the adrenaline fear of her mother. “Even if she's family, she deserved it.”

The demon said nothing, returning to his familiar sulk. He was back to walking in front of her to avoid looking at her, until she parted with him to return home and pack her things. He said nothing, and she imagined he would stalk back to his room without saying anything to Umeko, and remain there as long as he was able.

 

* * *

 

“More,” Akura-ou grumbled, setting down a chipped coffee mug from Disney World that served as a sake cup.

Umeko was starting to glare at him, but poured him another round before she started nagging again. “I know as well as you do that you could tell me why you're in such a mood. I don't have that long to blab about it, I'll take your secrets to the grave.”

“Talking. Mood,” he huffed, blowing back the burning smell of alcohol from the bottom of the mug. He made that mistake once. He used to talk to Hachiman, back when everything was raw and unbearable. He made it a rule not to talk to the shrine maidens, otherwise he'd be telling the same story over and over again. “I _hate_ that girl.” Even if he couldn't kill her, he was sorely tempted to try.

The old woman rolled her eyes, pouring him another round without asking. The bottle she kept for him in the kitchen was growing empty, but he had a stash in his room. When she would threaten to cut him off if he didn't tell her what was wrong, he'd make a show of stomping into his room as if it bothered him. “What is so bad about that little spat between them? It sounds bad, but things that upset humans don't usually affect you. You giggle at it, you don't feel it.”

“I don't _feel_ it,” Akura-ou stated, catching the old woman's eyes. “She's a stupid, wretched girl for saying those things. When you have a family, you treat them differently than that. You know how to hurt them, and you don't hurt them like that.”

He needed to stop drinking, or really start to. The dull buzzing between his ears wasn't enough to make his thoughts cloudy, just enough to make them murky, dark and uncontrollable.

The same old memory played over again, feeling the ghost of warmth fading from a cold, lonely landscape of snow. ' _This is farewell, Akura-ou._ ' Not _brother_ , he wouldn't say brother at that time, not even giving him _that_ much. For all the stupid things Akura-ou had done before, and the truly idiotic stunts he pulled after, he never separated the words ' _brother_ ' and _'Tomoe._ '

Umeko sighed, settling her arms on the counter before she set in on her attempt to have a heart-to-heart with him. “Alright, fine. You're an orphan, I'm an old maid. You can't get a family any easier than I could start one at my age. We can grouse and complain about how that girl acts or how her mother does, but the truth is we don't have a horse in this race. We're just jealous and miserable.”

Once again, he cursed himself for taking company with his drink. “I'm not familiar with Tanuki girls, but I do know they have better conversation when they pour sake,” Akura-ou said, finishing the bottle out without the mug before he made his way to his room.

Umeko clearly ignored him, back to her cheerful self when Kayako crashed through. She offered the little meal she had made two hours before, then followed into the girl's room to help her put away her things.

Umeko was one of his favorite shrine girls, though they often got better with age. The terror stopped prying their eyes wide, and irritation started to narrow them. Umeko started glaring at him after her first week, and started stomping back at his tantrums. She always pretended to be firm with him, even when he knew he terrified her at times. Hachiman absolutely loved that about her, and Akura-ou suspected that the god's physical aging was in part an attempt to match hers, as if he already knew she would be the last girl he would love.

Hachiman left her here. Hachiman left Akura-ou as well, and even if he didn't think about how the yokai hated goodbyes, Akura-ou was glad he didn't leave one. The old god knew too much about his familiar. He was there outside the cell in Izumo when the other gods were still scratching their heads and twisting their hands, trying to figure out a way to undo the immortal body.

When Akura-ou had finally acknowledged him, rolling over in the dark while bound completely in chains, the god had cocked his head to the side. ' _Your brother? We didn't know you had a brother._ '

' _Tomoe_ ,' he had answered, still dizzy from the effort his body was putting in the final touches of building a body from charred bones. ' _Is Tomoe alright?_ '


	4. New Quest Unlocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hachiman visits an old friend, and Kayako's plans are changed.

There had been an agreement made 500 years ago, when the gods gathered at Izumo without the call of the annual summit, but for the victory over the Bloodthirsty King. When execution attempts failed and final resolution was reached, there was an accord drawn between the gods called 'The East and West Agreement.'

All the magic woven and contracts made to reach the final peace would be torn asunder should the Eastern sky ever meet the West, and so two gods and two familiars set themselves on opposite poles, to never see the other.

Hachiman was glad to be free of that accord when he saw his old friend hiding in the bushes, intently watching a pretty young girl running out of the shrine with a sour-faced fox demon in tow. The god's turned back was an irresistible temptation.

“DOG!”

“WHERE?!” Mikage yelped, jumping in fright before his expression dimmed to a pinched smile, the closest he could manage to looking angry. Hachiman almost fell over laughing. “Hachiman, what are you doing here?”

“Revisiting the joys of my youth. Even after a thousand years, you still keep that adorable fright of yours,” the war god answered. He had been a horrible person as a young god, and taunted his little blonde peer savagely. On one occasion, he enlisted the help of a dozen dog familiars to scare Mikage while the little boy had been reading underneath a tree. The three elder gods had to soothe the marriage god from the top branches of it over the course of several hours.

“Oh,” Mikage said, eyes settling on Hachiman's chest as he finally spotted it. “That isn't the entire reason you came here, then.”

“Don't get that look,” the war god chided. “We're all odd folk, gods. I'm no different. I'm happy enough to laugh when my mind departs and my body flutters away. I'm not here for your counseling.”

“I suppose you're just here to scare me then.”

“No, you were right, that wasn't the entire reason,” Hachiman groaned as he coaxed his knees to bend, sitting down. “You picked a pretty girl. Did you finally feel sorry about your irresponsible vacation?”

“It's a strange tale, and I haven't had the chance to tell you about it,” Mikage said, wearing his patented 'I can't tell you everything just yet' smile. “But she will save Tomoe truly, as I can't.”

“I don't suppose there's more where she came from.”

The marriage god turned his head to watch a butterfly flit past them and disappear with a miniature supernova of light, telling him that Nanami and Tomoe made it safely to school. “Otohiko thought you chose that girl for the same end that I chose Nanami.”

Hachiman couldn't help but laugh. “My mind is going, but I'm not that gone yet! Akura-ou falling for a girl!” Mikage didn't laugh with him. “She had a hunger for it, for power. She had enough in her own right to not be cowed, and that's why I chose her. Why I chose at all...”

The words ceased to fall, feeling his fellow god's stare as if it was the scalding glare of an elder god, and he was merely a boy again.

“I really didn't want to see it. I like the stupid boy, but I also know him. He won't bend to the world we've created, and he won't fade happily like the fallen gods and guardians did. His blood will be the last that spills, and I just don't want to see it.”

Mikage wouldn't call him out on his cowardice, but Hachiman half-wanted him to. “I can understand that. I would not want to see Tomoe to that fate.”

“Stupid oni's always going to be alone,” the war god grumbled. “And even I won't do him the justice of being with him at the end. He doesn't deserve what I'm doing to him."

“He doesn't?”

“No,” Hachiman growled, but he really couldn't fault Mikage. None of the gods felt kindly towards Akura-ou. “We never said it, but we had an agreement. We killed our enemies together, and that binds us in his view. He gave me his loyalty, but he didn't ask for mine, because he shouldn't have to. I'm tossing him aside with far less reason than his brother had.”

“But you're still going to do that.”

The war god sighed, twisting a blade of grass between his fingers. “Even the prissy god of love isn't going to call me out on it.”

“I'm not,” Mikage answered, returning to his 'won't tell you a damn thing' smile. “Because I don't think it's going to turn out exactly as you think.”

 

* * *

 

“ _Why didn't you give me this letter?!_ ” the girl screamed, her frustration now reaching its peak with her favorite target now seized. Akura-ou stared at the floppy white sheet with dark scribbles shaking with the violence her tone promised to inflict on him.

“Who said it was yours?”

“The letter does. _It has my name on it.”_

Akura-ou couldn't really argue with that, but he would probably find a way eventually. Umeko, however, took his pause as a call for rescue. “Kayako dear, what does the letter say?"

The brat stewed for a bit, crumpling the note in a fist while she tried to pull a nice act for the shrine maiden. “My mother enrolled me in a high school. The school is writing me because I hadn't been there for the first week, and they have a 14 day limit before they hold a student back for absenteeism. This letter was mailed _three weeks ago_.”

“Oh.”

“Just to spite me, that woman,” Kayako growled. “I was doing perfectly well in my correspondence courses, but she knows I don't have time to actually attend school. Now my academic record is ruined. No university will accept this.”

“You're mad at me because you didn't go to a school that you didn't want to go to?” Akura-ou summarized, glaring back at the wretched little thing in front of him. “You little -”

“ _Kneel_.”

His knees stung on the wooden floor. If he was given just an inch, just a glance in Umeko's direction, he was going to pull the brat's kneecaps out with his claws. He was willing to die if he could take her out, screaming and wailing, with him.

“I'm going to the school to sort this out. You will take over the worshipers' log while Umeko is gone.”

The familiar gut feeling nearly knocked him out with the pain arcing through his chest like lightning. He almost fell over, which finally drew the old woman to his aid, “I'll stay here, then.”

“It's his fault, he should bear the consequences,” Kayako protested, but she didn't dare stomp her foot or her raise her tone to Umeko. The girl was at least that smart.

“I don't think Akura-ou can read,” the miko said. “He honestly didn't mean to cause trouble, for once.”

The less-than-rousing endorsement made the girl pause. “Fine, don't make any trouble while I'm gone. I'll be back as soon as I can so you can enjoy your afternoon, Umeko.”

The girl finally left, still gentle with the door they had managed to install after the first one wasn't salvageable. Akura-ou took over Umeko's usual responsibility for worrying. Once the girl got started on a rampage, she didn't stop on her own. Her tone didn't promise later pain, and he had never heard her talk to him the way she did. It was almost as if she was talking to a human.

“You really can't, right?” the old woman asked. “If I saved you from well-deserved wrath, you'll get it double from me.”

“Why the hell should I?” the oni groused. “Those little scribbles don't kill anything, and that's all I need to do. Kill stuff.” He fell back on the ground, remembering his current problem with the world at large. “When's a stupid yokai going to wander into this stupid town? I'm so bored. I'm bored out of my mind. I could die of boredom. So bored.”

“I don't suppose you're bored enough to straighten up the shrine while I visit my family, then?”

He didn't even bother to look at her. It was a stupid question, and he didn't even feel like picking a fight over it.

 

* * *

Sleep still tugged at his limbs, making him feel as hazy as sunlight through a fog. He had dozed for hours before finally waking, hours spent waiting with irritation and dread for the girl to yell at him to wake up, only because she had decided if she was awake, he needed to be.

The shrine was back to the blissful peace it had known before the girl had even arrived that dreadful night. Even Umeko smiled brightly, one of the real smiles she had shown Hachiman when she was a young and irritatingly smitten girl.

He yawned at her, but couldn't keep the smile from his lips as he took his usual chair at the counter, watching her simmer vegetables and meat for her lunch and Kayako's late-night dinner. “That's my half, right?” he joked, pointing at the bits of steak bleeding in a corner of the pan.

“It could be,” the miko answered, and he was almost taken with her good mood. However, he knew her too well to trust it.

“Eh?”

“We're good friends, aren't we Akura-ou-sama?” Oh this wasn't good. “We've gotten along so well in this shrine, for a long time. We take care of each other, right?”

“You're not going in a home until you're 100,” he growled. He knew she was starting to worry about that, now that her body was feeling the pull of a curtain-call called death. She had started making more visits to her relatives, especially the younger ones who would take her in if she was tossed out before her time. He wasn't going to let her go until he decided he'd had enough, and he figured he would have enough when she was at that state of living decomposition.

“It's not about me. You should know I never nag about myself,” she said, fussing with the meat so that it would boil out its rawness. “And I'm not nagging, I'm asking for a favor that I will absolutely repay. It's such a small thing really, something you should already be thinking about.”

“I'm not cleaning.” There had been an incident 400 years ago, after a hot tempered shrine girl had persuaded him with some temptations of the flesh that later made Hachiman blush. He remembered the incident, and he didn't hate the neighborhood or himself enough to risk repeating it. The girl got married off soon after, but her eyebrows never did grow back just right.

“Talk to Kayako about these crazy hours she's been keeping,” Umeko said, eyes rolling before she caught herself, then drew the wrinkles on her forehead down in a pleading look. “She doesn't eat more than once a day, and sleeps very little. This really isn't good for her, and stress affects humans very badly.”

“Why the hell do you think she'll listen to me? When I talk, she's just waiting for the chance to throw the words back in my face.” Along with a glare and a painful command. He'd even tried to tell her to stop strong-arming him with her divine power, and all he got for it was four sharp knuckles digging into the meat of his shoulder. What he'd do for a few minutes with no god powers and no holds barred with that girl. They'd be scrubbing pieces of gore out of the pavement for years.

“She isn't listening to me,” Umeko groused. “Maybe she thinks I'm just an overbearing old maid, but if you're worried, she'll be terrified. And you should be worried, since those gods are watching you now. If something happens to Kayako, they'll be after you.”

“They've always been after me. I lived a long, happy life before this job as a familiar, and I'd be happy to get back to it.”

That was the majority of his thoughts on the matter. He'd never tell the woman, or anyone, often not even himself, that there was a small worry in his mind. He might have grown soft, content without having to slaughter to pull breath. He hadn't been as successful as he dreamed he would be when he did manage to get out of his contract. He hadn't even killed anyone before the wolf familiar bore down on him.

Umeko scrapped the food out into two bowls, though one would soon be wrapped up in foil and put in the refrigerator for the girl.

The shrine maiden glanced at him, then held out a pair of chopsticks. “If you do this for me, I'll even cook something you want to eat.”

He huffed, almost tipping out of his chair as he kicked back in it. “I don't eat people food.”

“You're really missing out, it smells amazing,” a horrifyingly familiar voice sang, a new body leaning over the demon as a pink feather boa tickled his cheek.

“Why thank you...” Umeko stalled, probably trying to figure out the gender from a god with eyeshadow and a flat chest.

“Otohiko-sama will do, since we're good friends now,” the god answered, taking no time to settle into a chair next to the oni and tuck into a stolen meal. “It's so tragic such talent follows beauty for humans,” he moaned around a mouthful.

The miko stared at Akura-ou, trying to get him to say something. He really didn't want to. He had such a good day ahead of him, without the creepy stares from the god of wind slinking under the demon's skin. The god might be called a god of wind, but he wasn't known for bringing gusts or storms with him. He was known for stirring up trouble.

“The god's gone, you can come back tonight to see her,” Akura-ou muttered, cowed as those honey-colored eyes drifted over him too strongly.

“How horrible, I've heard such good things about her otherwise. An honor student in my grade book,” Otohiko cried, shaking his head. “I suppose I'll have to wait until she transfers to the Ujigami high school in Yase.”

“Otohiko-sama, if you'd please allow me to say so, I'd humbly ask that you make Kayako take a few days vacation before you take care of her education, as grateful as we are to your attention,” Umeko asked, clapping her hands together and bowing.

The god laughed, clapping himself. “No, it's not like that! I'm not taking care of her at all!” He choked himself up, coughing into a satin glove as he tried to regain his composure. “I'm bringing an exclusive, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for her to win a seat at the Annual God Summit in Izumo! She'll be the first human god to ever attend!”

“Why is she going to Yase to go to Izumo? Kyoto is closer,” Akura-ou asked, his usual discomfort around the wind god increasing tenfold as he heard the word 'Yase.'

“Of course, Kayako-chan's not the only human god to be considered, even if she is the best candidate. Ookunushi-sama was very clear about the Mikage shrine's new god running -”

“No,” the oni growled, his chair toppling behind him as he towered over the god. “You gods agreed, the Mikage shrine and the Hachiman shrine-”

“Are as separate as east and west, of course,” Otohiko sighed, setting his near-empty bowl aside as he smoothed down the feathers of his boa. “Ookunushi-sama said that, and now he's saying the two girls will compete in Yase.” The god winked, smirking under his bright red lipstick. “Since my work here is done, I'll be off! Tell Kayako I look forward to meeting her!”

Of course the god would take off now. He had already brought his storm of mischief, and all he had to do was wait for it to boil over, and rain down on Akura-ou's bright morning.

 

***

 

Kayako was almost back to the shrine, still unable to find suitable revenge against her mother for this latest battle in their war. Her name was struck from the Hiiragi records and slandered in the ears of the clients, but Kayako still took nearly a hundred of her most devoted worshipers from her mother's grasp. Kyou was still reeling from the threat her daughter had given, and the clients could tell. Slowly, they distanced themselves from the Hiiragi's tightening grip and into the god's warm embrace. Soon, they would be flooding around the shrine when Kyou finally broke.

The school was easy enough to deal with. They promised to enroll her in their correspondence program in a few days, but the program was unfortunately not the same as her previous one. She would have to take tests on the campus, but she wouldn't have to deal with the diluted education that occurred there full time. She could learn in an hour what took eight in classrooms, without the distraction of her lesser peers who gossiped about lovers and drama and _that weird Hiiragi girl thinks she can talk to ghosts or something, she thinks she's so special._

She remembered the whispers well when she stopped by the library, seeing one of her elementary school peers funneling words into another girl's ear behind her hand. _That's the Hiiragi girl, the stuck up Ghost Princess_.

Ice queen, stuck up, crazy, Ghost Princess, she heard it all before. She didn't want to deal with it again.

She hesitated in front of the shrine, but didn't turn around. Instead, she continued to purposefully stew in those old words, trying to remember the voices that said them. _Ice queen, stuck up, crazy, Ghost Princess._

She could hear the clicking behind her, and little nasally gasps that preceded each tick. She wouldn't let it know what she knew, instead she would catch it.

When she slid the door open, the demon was still in the living room, lying bonelessly on the floor. “Akura-ou, _kill this thing_.”

He jumped up and rushed to her, his chest caught against her shoulder before she could move away. The little black cloud couldn't escape him either, bursting apart in his fist. His grin didn't abate, and he looked at her like a child that was promised candy. “There's more, right? There's got to be more of them, right?!”

She ran a hand over her arm to make sure blood wasn't spilled on her shirt, as she closed her eyes and looked for any dangerous spikes of power in the city. “If there are, they aren't causing any harm yet.”

His good mood disappeared, replaced by a pout as he slammed the door after they both entered. “Some kid came by after Umeko left, had a real boring wish.”

“What?!” Kayako cried out, feeling the anger that had abated her during her outing return. “How am I supposed to know what the prayer said if you can't write it down?!”

“Because I _remembered_ it, I'm not stupid,” the oni growled, before clapping his hands together and smiling to mock the worshiper. “Please kami-sama, I'm not yet brave enough to face the guys who pick on me at school, because I'm a skinny, prissy guy who deserves it. But I'm going to use my daddy's money to go mountain climbing, so please grant me the courage to scale it successfully, then I can face my peers.”

A headache was beginning to flare at the back of Kayako's skull. “And his name?”

“Mori Kirihito,” Akura-ou grinned. “What a gloomy name, misty forest man.”

“ _Mori_ ,” Kayako hissed, then covered her mouth to contain her glee. “Kirihito is going to inherit the Mori Trust. If I take the Mori family, my mother's business will crumble.”

“You're almost as bitter as Ikusagami,” Akura-ou mused.

The front door inched open as Umeko shuffled through, arms laden with groceries that Kayako immediately moved to take. “Kayako, you're such a dear! Did Akura tell you about the visitor we had?”

“Mori Kirihito?” the god asked, pulling vegetables and other items that would need to go into the old refrigerator.

“No, that god...goddess... Otohiko-sama, was it?” Akura-ou groaned inwardly, wondering if the lack of help around the shrine was worth killing the old woman.

“Otohiko-gami? Otohiko is a god! Why was he here?” Kayako begged, her voice increasingly high and strangled with panic.

“There's a conference that he wants you to attend, but first you have to travel to Yase and compete against another shrine. It seems to be a great honor, and he holds you in very high esteem to consider it.”

The girl might have stopped breathing, mouth opening and closing as her eyes fluttered around the room, hands wringing as if to find the words that had flown from her. Akura-ou hoped she was having a stroke. So many problems in his life would be solved with that. “A conference. With a god. With a real god.”

“There was also a high school mentioned, wasn't there, Akura-ou?”

“I'm not going. I'm not going to have anything to do with it,” he growled. Even if the brat turned her beady little eyes on him with her fiery hatred, teeth gritted and aura dark, he wouldn't be moved. He couldn't go to Yase for the agreement, and for once he wanted to abide by Izumo's wishes. He didn't want to go there.

He didn't want to see him there.

“You're going. And you're going to learn how to read before tomorrow morning.”

He was going to pass the entrance exam even if she had to beat him with the elementary school books she had already borrowed from the library.


	5. New Area Unlocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kayako finds her new school and her new rival.

She couldn't believe he actually passed the exam. After ten hours of cramming, pouting, screaming, and throwing things at each other, he only knew how to write his name. Yet here he stood, horns hidden and ears rounded, scowling as he rolled up his white pressed shirt's sleeves. “Why can't I kill her?”

“Because I can defeat her easily,” Kayako explained once again. Her familiar had such a childish side to him. When he didn't get his way, he threw tantrums, sulked in his room, or whined constantly in an attempt to make her give in just for peace of mind. “Otohiko-sama believes I'm the superior living god, and this test is just a formality. Mikage is regarded more highly than Hachiman, and as successors we have to establish our real power against each other.”

“So why am I here?” he whined again, sounding almost exhausted by his own attempt to wear her down.

“Because I ordered you to come,” the goddess said, regarding the school building in front of them. As a public school, it wasn't as ornate or grand as her previous schools, simply a warehouse built by the government for the education of the masses rather than the refinement of the elite. “This is all a show of strength, and even if I wouldn't have picked you as a familiar, you're a powerful one to have.”

Akura-ou stared at her a minute before pressing the back of his hand against her forehead.

“It's a compliment, not a fever!” she growled, pushing back his hand. She couldn't detect the other girl's aura, which should stand out at least slightly because she was a fellow god, if a weak one by Otohiko's standards.

She would end this tournament quickly and return to Kyoto with her head held high.

 

* * *

 

She caught just a glimmer of the girl's power during her new homeroom class. Akura-ou was already beginning to doze off when she asked the teacher to be excused, following her senses down the hall to the nurse's office as a bubbly girl with red hair walked out.

The room smelled like poultice, abandoned but for a small form curled in on itself on a cot. She looked down at the girl, her long brown hair and round features, eyelashes feathered against her cheeks. She looked peaceful, like any non-gifted, simple person would be. She ran a hand over her hair, feeling every part of the girl's history unwind under her fingertips.

“Seems like you have lots of hardships because of your money-losing father. Your lack of luck with money and guys is a karma from your birth,” Kayako mused, drawing the girl on the cot to become alarmed and pull herself away.

“W-Who are you?!”

“Didn't you hear about me from Otohiko-gami?” Kayako asked. He probably didn't mention her, it was kinder to lead lambs to the slaughter without alarming them of their fate. “I'm one of the candidates to attend Izumo's God Conference. I'm Hiiragi Kayako, nice to meet you.”

The girl was charmed by Kayako's friendly mask, looking at her with wide eyes. “Ah, well... Nice to meet you too. I never thought that you were one of the students here,” Nanami said, shaking Kayako's offered hand with a light grip.

“Students here?” Her mother at least didn’t hate her enough to send her to public school. “Ah, you've got it wrong. I heard that there's a human god here, so I came to this school as a short term transfer student just to see you. I was raised in a city. I'm not used to the country-side like here, but...”

The girl shrieked wordlessly with a simple trick of the mind, staring at her hand as if it had turned into snakes. She was amusingly weak, not even a child could fall for that.

“If it's you that I have to deal with, it looks like I'll be the one to go to Izumo. Seems like I can go back earlier than I thought, I'm relieved.” She could scare the girl into submission without beating her down with her real power. She could return to Kyoto, and get Akura-ou to stop whining at her.

The other god flopped across the cot, still waving her hands around to get rid of the snakes that existed only in her mind. “I was wondering what a land god would look like, what a letdown you are! Don't you think it's better for you to start packing the shrine?”

Long fingernails pressed against her neck before a hand curled around it. Kayako stiffened, for a moment dreading to find Akura-ou behind her before she noticed the great white beast folded into the space behind her. “Enough.”

“Wh-What the hell are you-” Panic surged through Kayako. This was bad. Violence rippled through the air between them. This guy was powerful.

“Tomoe! My – my – my hand turned into a snake -”

The fox smirked at her, fixated on the beast just beyond his form. “Did you see something, woman?” he asked Kayako. She couldn’t conjure words to answer him, still mesmerized by his form.

“My hand!” the land god shrieked, as if the beast was referring to her.

“It's just an illusion, Nanami. Don't be deceived by such a petty trick.”

The girl calmed instantly, finding the vision dissolved while Kayako was trained on the familiar.

Now that the fox had let her go, looking to aid his master, Kayako made a swift exit back to the classroom.

She was right to bring her familiar, as this tournament wouldn’t be as simple as she thought.

 


	6. A Wild Fox Appeared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The East and West Accord falls with little more than a childish argument and a challenge.

 

“Geez! What the hell was wrong with that girl?!” Nanami groused, still fidgeting with her hands as if they would turn back into snakes if she ignored them. Tomoe watched her, his new goddess thrown into a fit over another weak human girl.

“Even if you go to Izumo, there's nothing you can do. Why don't you just hand it over to her?” He had to save her from that girl once already. His weak little land god had injured herself just by treating whatever wounds she incurred when she danced the Kagura. She couldn't possibly face a real opponent.

“No way! I don't know why, but I don't want to lose to her, and it's making me feel all fired up!” Nanami declared, staring in the distance with a fist raised. Tomoe stared at the back of her head, trying not to roll his eyes. It was one thing to face an enemy out of stubbornness, and quite another to do it as in Nanami’s weak state.

“No.”

“Why?!” she demanded, facing him with all the fire in her brown eyes.

“Because you're weak, like an insect.”

“I'll become strong from now on!”

“Didn't you get weak from dancing the Kagura?”

“I promise not to embarrass you!” she whined, pulling on his shirt like a child having a fit.

“It's not about me,” Tomoe said, finally she stopped, finally seeing him. He caught a glimpse of something, and yes, she had let Otohiko get to her. She wanted to find Mikage for him. “I don't want you to be hurt for attending the God Conference.”

She rested her head on his chest, still holding his shirt, but now she seemed so calm. “Thank you,” she said, and he hoped she would decide to heed his words just as fiercely as she had refused them. “But-”

“Seriously, I turned my back for one minute-”

“He pushed me first-”

“-And that hurt your feelings, did it?” Kayako hissed down the stairway leading to the roof.

“Stop nagging, I didn't hurt him that much,” a young man with long red hair said, stepping out of the shadows.

Tomoe stiffened, holding Nanami's shoulders before he stepped in front of her, keeping his eyes trained on the demon wearing a human's appearance, who met his eyes with the same wariness.

“Tomoe?” the land god said, noticing how he bristled with the sight of the man. He was too stunned to call out his fox fire and attack, yet kept urging himself to do so.

“Tomoe,” the redhead repeated with a grin. “Looks like you’re perfectly domesticated! A guy like you serving a little human girl, it’s hilarious!” he said, laughing so hard that he nearly fell over.

Kayako rolled her eyes. “Is that any different from you?”

His laugh choked off in a coughing fit. “Completely different.”

“Mikage told me you were dead, Akura-ou,” Tomoe growled, ignoring the little brunette who kept trying to look over his shoulder.

Akura-ou smirked. “Tch, at least the god I worked for never lied to me. I’m a useful guy, a perfect familiar for a god of war. Seems you weren’t that lucky. What does fox fire have to do with matchmaking anyway?”

“Tomoe is an amazing familiar!” Nanami protested. Tomoe flicked his ears back as her shout reverberated, she had yelled right into his ear. “He took care of the shrine alone for 20 years! He’s more powerful than any enemy, he keeps the shrine spotless, and he can cook the best food I’ve ever eaten!”

The immortal giggled as he stared at the land god. “Tomoe cooks now, does he?”

“Even if you have a capable familiar, it’s useless with someone as weak as you. My familiar isn’t weak,” the psychic hissed. “It’s best that you forfeit now before you lose face.”

“Absolutely not!” Nanami stepped out from behind Tomoe, as he tried to restrain himself from pushing her back behind him. Akura-ou was still staring at her, and he knew how lethal Akura-ou’s interest could be. “I will beat you and go to Izumo!”

A clack as two high heels met the concrete roof drew everyone’s attention to the god who had blown in like a spring gust of wind. “Now that both of you are up to it, it’s okay for me to tell you the details of the test.”

 

* * *

 

Kayako glared at her history book until she became aware of the tight tension in her shoulders, then closed it and sighed. It wasn’t good for the shikigami to absorb any stress from her while it developed. She could nurture a shikigami easily, but now that she was being tested on its beauty, she had to put all of her effort and skills into it.

She might be able to relax more if she knew where her familiar was.

He had been surprisingly quiet throughout the day, and had even stopped falling asleep in class. He seemed distracted with his thoughts, which surprised her as she had assumed he had very few of those. She had taken a shower after they returned to the sparse little apartment, and found that he had fled while she was in there.

It had only been an hour that she knew of. It was enough time that if he was marauding and pillaging, she would have heard sirens or screams.

She jumped as the door opened and clicked shut, bringing in the smell of wine. Akura-ou carried two bags with bottles of sake inside, and from his slight sway and unfocused eyes, she imagined he could have drank that much before he returned.

“Where were you?!” Kayako demanded, fully aware that she sounded like a nagging housewife.

He groaned. “You have to have little plastic cards to buy alcohol nowadays. Had to go to Yonder. Scared a bunch of Tanuki girls. Didn’t mean it though.” The demon made himself at home, lying down beside her on the floor with his head propped up on her textbooks

A dark red swirled around his aura like red wine in a glass. It didn’t suit him to be a vulnerable type of brooding. “Do you want to tell me why you needed to drink?”

His golden eyes caught hers for a moment, before he chuckled. “You do that to Umeko. Don’t do it to me.”

“Do what?”

“Talk like you care. You don’t mean it.”

“I don’t,” Kayako agreed. She never really had. “But it’s a good trick. Everyone has to believe they’re being cared for. It helps with their pain.”

“Pain,” he huffed, not quite a laugh this time. “Pain is fox fire. When he did it, they were all staring, but he was staring at me different. He looked like I was hurting him. I wasn’t, I didn’t really try. He could have been happy, he could have at least given me that. He didn’t.”

“Tomoe hurt you?” Kayako asked, and he looked away in response, towards the sake. “He hurt you with fox fire.”

“Tried to kill me,” he answered, now devoid of emotion as he worked his claws around the cork stopper. “He knew how to do it. I can take damage to a point, then I get hurt. He always knew that. He turned me in and I can’t even call him on it.”

“Why not?” The demon had never been careful with his words before. He had also never spoken to her like this, empty of the animosity they had built between them. He seemed too tired to fight.

“If he remembers, he’ll get hurt. It was part of the deal. He’ll die if he remembers.”

“Doesn’t that serve him right?” Kayako asked. “If he tried to kill you, you’d want to kill him. It’s what you do.”

“Not him,” Akura-ou growled, staring into the depths of the clay pot. “He’s still my brother. We agreed to it. We had a lot of fun, then he got weird. He didn’t even tell me.”

Kayako remembered what Umeko had told her that first night at the shrine. “Tomoe was the fox that you fought with. Who was the woman?”

She flinched as the bottle was hurled into the wall in front of him. “Stupid,” he growled. “Stupid woman. She ruined it. She ruined him.” He rolled himself to his knees, struggling to stand. “I got her back for it though. I killed her.”

Kayako almost ordered him to clean up the mess of shards and wine before he started gagging and staggered towards the bathroom. She tucked her shikigami egg into her shirt pocket as she got up to look for napkins and a trash bin.

She couldn’t believe she ever felt sorry for a demon like him.

 

* * *

 

Nanami watched Tomoe's tail flick back and forth, sweeping the immaculate floor that he had cleaned in quiet frustration after returning to the shrine. He glared at the end of his pipe, blowing smoke out of the side of his mouth.

“So, do you know that weird girl and crazy redheaded guy from somewhere?”

“I don't know the girl,” the fox answered, tapping his pipe against the edge of the porch so that he could clean out the ashes. “I knew Akura-ou quite well when I was younger.”

“And you didn't cook or clean when you were younger,” the goddess surmised as the familiar fought a smile.

“I was a powerful demon then. The only person that was more feared than me was Akura-ou, who was my brother and comrade. We were good friends until I tried to kill him.”

Nanami jolted. “Why did you try to kill him?!”

“I don't remember,” Tomoe answered, ears flicking back. “He's a very annoying person with no respect for other people's feelings. I think I just got tired of him taking my things and starting one-sided fights.”

“You can't kill someone just because you don't like them,” the goddess said, wondering how many times she would have to explain the most obvious concepts and morals to her familiar. “You should probably apologize for breaking off your friendship like that.” Though the redhead didn't seem too bothered by it.

“Probably,” the fox grumbled in agreement, refusing to meet Nanami's eyes. He didn't seem to like the idea of admitting wrongdoing on his part. “You should stay very far away from him, Nanami. He's killed a lot of people just for the fun of it, and he would hardly have to lift a finger to kill you.”

“I don't want anything to do with that crazy girl or her familiar,” the goddess groused, holding her shikigami egg between her hands as she imagined her spiritual energy flowing to it. “I just have to hatch a beautiful child from this egg. I don't even have to fight that woman.”

“I doubt you could raise an ugly shikigami in that state,” Tomoe said, piercing her with his gaze as he finally looked at her, and seemed to look through her. “You should be resting to recover from the spiritual drain from the festival.”

“I'll be strong from now on, remember?” Nanami argued, remembering the determination that surged through her on the rooftop. “I'm going to defeat that girl and go to Izumo!”

 

***

 

Irritation set in far before her sleepiness departed or her memory of the need to go to school returned. Nanami rolled groggily in her bed, trying to inch away from the warm, soft nest of blankets that had no right to be so comfortable in the morning.

“If you want to go to your school, you should probably get up now. You're 30 minutes late and the gates will be locked soon.”

The goddess' eyes sprung open as her body tensed. “30 min - why didn't you – Tomoe! Why didn't you wake me up?!”

Nanami found her legs still tangled in the blankets as she tried to hurl herself towards the door where her familiar stood in his school uniform. She fell to the floor with an alarming crunch, rolling over on her back as she tried to figure out how she had broken a bone so horribly without feeling any pain.

A glance to where she fell made her wish she had broken a bone, staring at the broken shell of her shikigami. A puff of smoke steamed out before she could reach out for the egg, watching helplessly as the shattered eggshell disintegrated around a small monkey blinking back the light.

 


	7. Level 2 Boss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The library is an exciting place.

The girl cast him a smile as he walked towards his seat, ignoring the elderly man at the front of the classroom who glared at him for being a few hours late. He really hadn't expected her to be in good spirits, and it was beginning to frighten him a little.

“She broke her egg already. The poor moron couldn't be at a worse disadvantage,” Kayako whispered as she put a hand to her shirt pocket. “It's hardly fair to continue this charade.”

“Wake me when we can go home,” Akura-ou grumbled as he tried to find a comfortable place to rest his head on his desk.

“Ou Akura,” the little old man called from the front of the room. “Ou Akura, take this slip to the office so they can record your tardiness.”

“Shut up,” the demon groaned, kicking the legs from under an empty chair in front of him as he leveled his own glare at the teacher. “I'm here, so just get this stupid class over with, noisy old man.”

“Akura!” the bratty girl called out, slamming her textbook shut. “Go to the office like the instructor told you to!”

He felt the taste of blood blooming in the back of his mouth as his gut clenched to the girl's divine command. He was able to keep most of his balance as he stalked to the teacher and grabbed the slip of paper, bracing himself on the wall as soon as the classroom door shut behind him.

He really shouldn't get her that pissed off when she was trying to be in a good mood.

After the scribe in the office copied the contents of the slip of paper, he decided to find a nice dark corner to sleep away his gut roiling from excessive drinking and blood boiling in search of a fight.

When his mind refused to work through its worries, his bloodlust did it for him. No drink could slacken his thirst now, not when he could still smell fox fire burning in his nostrils. His skin felt too tight and too warm in this school, and he craved something to try digging him out of it before he ripped it apart.

_Doesn't that serve him right? If he tried to kill you, you'd want to kill him._

He should. He was always smart enough to bite the hand that would try to strangle him before it could reach out. Now he writhed under Tomoe's foot like a bug, entirely too helpless.

That girl though.

Akura-ou leaned into a corner of the library, remembering that little god Tomoe had shielded with his body. Akura-ou had hated the rank stench of fear from weak beings, only dissipating with their last breath, but this weakling was different. She stared him down, enraged on the behalf of her familiar's domestic abilities.

That girl was interesting. If he played around with her, it wouldn't be solely to annoy Tomoe, which was always reward in itself. She was simply amusing.

It had been a long time since he had felt like playing with humans.

 

*_*_

 

Not for the first or last time, Kayako wished she could get rid of that uncontrollable demon she was forced to leash with her will.

She knew she really put too much force in her last command, feeling a bit dizzy afterwards. If her shikigami suffered for his outburst, she would beg the gods to take him back to Izumo, even if they wanted to kill him. She couldn't feel much pity for him, after seeing how quick to violence he was. The grin he wore when he crushed that tiny demon at the shrine still haunted the back of her mind. He didn't simply enjoy violence, it was a part of him. His favorite part.

Even as she reflected on the fear and hatred she felt for her familiar, she found herself browsing a selection of fairy tales in the library. She would pick one up and flip through it, trying to find something easy to read.

Something he could read.

She had almost read the end of a story about a demon king and his three wives when she heard a familiar voice cry out with a steady crash of books falling to the floor.

Kayako turned around the corner to find her rival rubbing her head as her redhaired familiar pulled at a textbook impaled on a horn. “Hide your horns, idiot! Anyone could walk by and see you!”

The demon pouted, thwarted by the curve of his white horns as he continued to struggle with the book. “I have to get this stupid thing off first.”

“Here,” the land god said, swatting away the oni's hands as she pulled the book off easy. “Now you're alright.”

The horns and pointed ears disappeared as Kayako stared, eyes narrowed at the stupid, wide-eyed girl who was _actually smiling at Akura-ou_. “Now I'm going to have to annoy Tomoe and Mizuki to learn more about shikigami,” the girl complained, holding the destroyed book in her hands.

“Or just ask me,” the demon offered, fluffing his ego visibly. “I'm older than both of your familiars, so I obviously know more than they do.”

“Even with his help, the challenge is hardly fair,” Kayako sneered. “I don't even mind if _my familiar_ takes pity on you.”

“Ha! Even Kayako is fine with it and she usually finds any reason to be mad at me,” Akura-ou grinned stupidly back at the girl.

“You're not on a first name basis with me, don't call me Kayako.”

“See, any reason at all, no matter how small or inconspicuous-”

“Quiet!” Kayako hissed, hairs raising at the back of her neck. This wasn't the time to argue like an old married couple, but her familiar was obviously blind to the change in the air of the library.

She smelled the foul stench of rotten eggs and refuse before she heard it, the steady drip of venom falling on the top of a bookcase. She looked up and saw it.

Surrounded by miasma, a giant spider loomed over them, held aloft by threads as thick as rope. “Little living gods,” it hissed, red eyes gleaming. “The taste of your flesh will prolong my life for 2000 years.”

A bolt of white light struck the spider's pincer as it tried to back up and evade. Kayako turned around to see Akura-ou's palm opened towards the beast. “Oi! I'm right here! Bloodthirsty King, slayer of thousands. _Right. Damn. Here._ ”

The great beast screeched and threw itself towards the familiar, who chortled as he swung his claws forward.

“Don't kill it, Akura-ou!”

The oni was thrown to the side, a blow that would have split the spider in two only taking one of its legs. “ _WOMAN, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU -_ “

Kayako ignored him, throwing blessed paper charms towards the beast, closing her eyes. She imagined a barrier of golden light connecting each slip, forming a wall around the spider. She would build these walls sturdy and thick, binding the creature. She would trap it soundly.

Her focus was disrupted as the stupid land god hurled herself at her, knocking her to the ground as the spider loomed over them, black liquid miasma dripping from its maw. They were caught against the bookcase, the idiot girl still holding Kayako tightly, pinning her. Shielding her.

Blue flames burst around the evil spirit, causing it to scream once more as it burned quickly to ash. Miasma still swirled around the carpet, the chaotic mess the library had become a testament to the spider's power.

“Are you alright, Nanami?” the fox spirit asked, kneeling down as he touched the girl's shoulder. The land god was struck with her familiar's proximity, jerking away from Kayako as she waved her hand and cooed praise for saving their lives.

Kayako remained too shaken to offer her thanks as well, or to notice Akura-ou's sulking.


	8. Socketed Item

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hatching of the shikigami draws closer.

Four. Four days left until she won the contest.

Her shikigami egg was growing so large that it threatened to rip the seams of her backpack. Today would be the last day she would attend this charade of a school. Honestly, the reason she still attended this long was to keep an eye on the land god, and to irritate Akura-ou, who had decided to give her the silent treatment after the incident in the library.

“You still can't kill the land god,” Kayako reminded her familiar, who was staring out the window as the girl and her fox walked outside during their lunch break.

Akura-ou answered with a non-committal grunt, eyes still locked on the pair.

The psychic was growing sick of the warlord's latest tantrum, placing the lid on her half-eaten convenience store bento. “If you killed the spider, I would be responsible for the evil aura that's still tainting this school. I refuse to purify an area that is so clearly the land god's problem.”

“I want to kill something,” the demon finally spoke, narrowing his eyes at the fox familiar. “I'm going out of my mind over this stupid fox and his stupid woman and this stupid peaceful era crap.”

“If you keep radiating negativity, you'll give enough power to the miasma for it to create more demons.”

A smile finally caught the familiar's lips, looking at her with a wide-eyed stare that almost seemed innocent. “I can kill those, right?”

“As long as the land god remains oblivious to it. The library has a few demons already.”

Kayako found herself staring at an empty chair as the oni took off running. Even if he was a moody creature, he was still a simple one to entertain.

She opened her bag and checked the shikigami again, running a hand over its pearly, smooth surface.

Perhaps she could get rid of him with this.

 

*****

 

By the time he returned from an impromptu trip to Yonder, following a troop of scared weasel spirits who had visited the library, the air in the school had been completely purified by the land god. When he followed Tomoe for a bit between classes, he even smelled the scent of lemongrass on the fox. His brother, purified by a land god when he was just starting to smell like the blood and gore that fit him so much better.

The scent stuck in his nose so much that he didn't bother to talk to the land god, even though it could be one of the last chances he had to annoy Tomoe.

The war goddess continued to stroke her shikigami egg at every opportunity, even wearing her backpack so it was in front of her, in case someone pushed her backwards or tried to steal it. He was tempted to tell her, so very tempted. She might burst into tears if he did, or tense up with the attempt not to do so in front of him. She would look so ugly with such a disheartened expression.

“Is there any way a war god would be responsible for part of Yonder? If a demon attacked someone in Kyoto, would you have to follow it?”

“Not technically, but I've still gotten away with it,” Akura-ou answered, reminiscing about the time a clan of wild boar kidnapped a noblewoman and Hachiman went with him to slaughter them. The old god was a good warrior, but he didn't quite have the playful energy the fox used to have.

“Perhaps a few of my worshipers could be led to believe they were attacked,” Kayako mused, close to smiling. He had never seen her smile without Umeko being the target of it. “If you are a very obedient familiar, of course.”

He found himself grinning despite himself. The girl might not be as useless, annoying, and ugly as he thought.

 

****

 

The clock tower nearby struck four, and he still hadn't decided what to do. The sake he had drank, in hopes to loosen a brilliant idea from his skull, hadn't helped. He was still stuck staring at the girl, muttering incoherently in a fever dream.

Still holding her hand to her oversized egg.

She probably wouldn't last the night, not with the amount of energy the shikigami was suckling from her pale body, still dressed in the robes she slept in. He could sit there and watch her die, slowly. He could drink to her last breath before it entered her lungs.

A young boy's voice broke into his thoughts as he turned to look at the doorway, though the apartment was spun around three young children wearing the same red apron. “The shikigami is sucking the life out of her! The only way to save her is to shatter it!”

Did the land god have a little brother? Were children allowed to run around in an apron and nothing else?

“Akura-ou,” the land god called again, holding his face to look at her. She looked so familiar, except for the eyes. She shouldn't have eyes that wide. “Akura-ou! We have to take Kayako to the hospital!”

He looked back to the war goddess, her breath going ragged as she struggled to pull it in. “Don't. Hurt it,” she rasped, glaring at them as fiercely as she could muster. “I'm going to win.”

It was adorable how she thought she could boss him around now. The ceramic bottle felt too light in his hand as he swung it forward, tossing it. The room shook as the air crackled with spiritual energy, so thick that it manifested in bolts of lightning.

The war god could barely stop herself from crying as the other god gathered her up to take her away.

 

***

 

He was halfway back to Kyoto before he realized he could have killed the land god and watched the hateful girl die. He cursed his poorly timed revelations.

 


	9. New Achievement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The results of the test come to light.

The wretched beast had enough sense not to visit her hospital bed the first day as she recovered. Nanami stopped by after school and after dinner, bringing her some leftovers that the fox had made. The janitor that was sent in to clean it off the walls glared half-heartedly at her.

But of course, her familiar didn't have enough sense to stay away forever. He was at her bedside when she woke, with a box and a canvas bag on the foot of the bed. “Umeko sent food and prayers to get better, however that works.”

“I want that wolf familiar to come back and kill you,” Kayako hissed. “If I could do it myself, you wouldn't be breathing.”

He had the gall to laugh at her, propping his boots on her blankets. “Is that it? You'd just kill me like that? How would you do it, just command me to die?”

“Or throw yourself out that window. Or take a scalpel to your own neck,” she growled, anger roiling inside her like water close to boiling over. “Or maybe I'll ask the fox to finish you off like he should have before.”

He laughed softer this time, clearly not enjoying their conversation anymore. “Is that so? You'd have my own brother kill me.”

“I would.” The traitor deserved no less, destroying her only chance to go to Izumo right in front of her eyes. For making her fail and stoop before the stupid land god.

“Then I guess I shouldn't tell you what's in the bag,” Akura-ou said, kicking his feet off the bed as he stood up. “Went through a round-trip to Kyoto just for that, and this is the thanks I get. Ungrateful brat.”

He left the room before she could throw the flower vase at her bedside at him. She stewed for a long moment, wishing she had enough power to throw him out the window just for the sake of the happiness it would bring her, before she reached out for the bag and pulled it into her lap.

As she stared at the contents, her blood ran cold with regret.

The stupid traitor probably didn't deserve all of her wrath just yet.

 

*_******

 

The shell was smoother, thinner. She couldn't stop herself from running her fingers over it, as gently as she possibly could. This was more delicate than mother's wedding tea set. This was more precious than anything she had touched before.

She cooed to it whenever she was alone in her room the first day. It didn't grow or change.

She read a story to it three times, then made up her own fairy tale during the night. A priestess was left alone on a snowy mountain as a babe, and grew up in the cold embrace of a snow woman. The priestess was beautiful, but made of hollow ice. She was beloved by her people until she melted only slightly, revealing that she was empty inside. Then, they crushed her.

The egg was still not affected.

When she was released from the hospital, she didn't return to the apartment. She found an isolated corner of a park to sit in, her fingers not quite so gentle on the shell, her voice not quite so kind. She only had a few hours until her 7 days ran out.

“The oni is only going to laugh at me harder if I can't raise you,” Kayako complained. “He gave me one more chance only to see me fail again.”

A butterfly fluttered around a few flowers at the base of a tree, distracting the psychic from the anxiety of her impending doom.

“He's an idiot as well as cruel. If I had you, I'd have no use for him, would I? I would go to the gods and argue that I can replace him as a familiar, and they could have him back. I'd figure out a way to kill him myself if I had to,” she growled.

The egg refused to move. It might not even be a familiar's egg, it could be an ostrich's.

Kayako reached out with her mind, probing inside as gently as she could. She didn't hear any thoughts, but a sleepy, hazy kind of contentment fell upon her like sunlight. “You're happy in there, aren't you? And here I am trying to break you out to win a contest. Selfish.” Her eyes became moist as defeat began to wash over her. “I'm not like that girl, am I? Power doesn't make a god, it's the heart. It's always the heart, and I don't have it.

“Even if Akura-ou is evil, even if he hates me, he brought you to me didn't he? Even though I hate him so much, he would do something like that for me.”

Her tears fell hot on her cheeks, finding it harder to breathe and harder not to sob. “I'm worse than a demon like him, and I'm so angry that I lost. Of course I should lose to that girl.”

Kayako forced herself to take deep breaths, forcing herself to calm down. She was in this moment. This moment didn't need hysterics, it needed forward movement. She needed to return to the apartment to pack up and leave for Kyoto. She needed to check on Akura-ou. She needed to decide whether to accept her defeat to the land god or run away from it altogether.

“I'm sorry,” she whispered, patting the egg gently. “I'm glad that you're still safe in there. Stay there as long as you can. The world is full of selfish people like me.”

As she lifted her hand, the egg rolled just slightly towards a rock, needle-thin cracks spreading around the point of impact. Kayako yelped, pulling the egg into her lap as she felt the dent in that whisper-thin shell. Maybe she could focus her energy into it and heal it. Maybe she could tape it back together. Maybe the familiar was still alright. Maybe she hadn't killed that warm little soul inside.

Oh god she had killed that little familiar before it was even born.

The damaged shell was pushed out as a blonde paw pushed through. Claws scratched on the inside, eventually tearing through the white surface as the cracks spread.

Kayako couldn't believe it, watching numbly as she couldn't decide whether to aid in the fight against the shell or to wrap it up tightly in a sweater to make sure it didn't actually hatch.

A blonde haired puppy was soon walking in circles on her lap before it collapsed, curled up and sleeping.

She had a tiny familiar sleeping on her in an isolated part of the park, and she had no idea what she was supposed to do with it.

 

***_*

 

“Otohiko-sama,” Kayako called, causing the god to turn on a high heel with a shocked expression. He had gathered at the Mikage shrine, content to ignore her after seeing that she had failed. “I did not raise a shikigami as required by the test, but I ask that you consider my familiar in its stead.”

Akura-ou was oddly stiff at her side, looking off into the distance. Even as a familiar, the purity of the land god's shrine was uncomfortable for yokai such as himself. The fox also tensed up, refusing to look at him.

“Otohiko-sama, I think you should do that too,” Nanami interjected. “The exam was completely rigged.”

The moron managed to shock Kayako with her honesty. The land god had the seat to Izumo in the bag, the wind god himself was just congratulating her win, and she was willing to hand it over so easily?

Otohiko managed to shock Kayako further. “Human gods aren't really gods, are they? They're more like half-gods. It shouldn't make much of a difference if you two share the same seat.”

“ _What_?” Akura-ou growled, eyes now fixed on the androgynous god. “ _What_? This entire contest was absolutely useless, but you went through with it anyway? You were just going to let them _share_?”

“I wasn't going to, but I can't pick a winner now. Nanami's shikigami isn't to my taste, and Kayako didn't even raise a shikigami. And more importantly,” Otohiko smirked, eyes raking over the oni. “Hatching a wolf familiar warrants a trip to Izumo regardless. The familiar is descended from a line that served Amaterasu. It will have to be accepted and trained by Tadashi.”

Tadashi. The wolf that tried to kill Akura-ou.

Kayako had a lot to consider in the sparse few days they were given before the God Conference. She had many pieces to move into place, and many reasons to consider each move carefully.

If she was careful, she might return to Kyoto with only one familiar.

 


	10. Press 'i' for Inventory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our players stop by Kyoto on the way to Izumo.

There weren't many creatures that could survive turning Akura-ou's mood sour, but only one that could feign such an blank expression in the face of his rage. “What was that, Akura?”

“You know perfectly well you – you nosy, busy-body, housewife to a runaway fisherman-”

“Akura-ou,” Kayako snapped, stomping out of her bedroom where she had been arranging appointments to see worshipers most of the day. “What are you nagging Umeko about?”

“ _Umeko_ ,” he hissed, “Hid some important things of mine and rearranged Hachiman's office.”

“That dirty picture should have been gone before dear Kayako stepped foot in this shrine, but you know Hachiman. He's useless with the details,” the miko huffed, dusting the living room.

“The Dream of The Fisherman's Wife is a historic print, and absolutely befitting a fisherman's god - “

“That print was hanging in this shrine?!” Kayako shrilled, though Akura-ou wasn't going to question how she was so familiar with it that she knew it by name.

“I want the print and my stuff, but I'll settle for my stuff. Get out my stuff. Give me my stuff. _Now_.”

Neither his open palm or lowered voice could make the miko so much as flinch. “The alcohol is gone, I threw out everything with blood on it, and the rest is at Hachimangu, in storage.”

“There was a statue of pure gold with blood on it! You didn't throw that out!”

“It was a statue of you that would be completely inappropriate for Kayako to see,” Umeko turned to face him, hands on her hips and a fierce grimace on her face. “If you bring anything perverted back into this shrine, I won't just box it up and store it.”

Akura-ou growled in answer, pulling his boots on so that he could retrieve a few things he wanted to pack for Izumo. Namely, his favorite club. The expression “an oni and his club” might be an annoying way to describe something undefeatable, mostly annoying because every oni has heard that line and like ones a million times, but it was still true. That club was made perfectly for him, the base not only shaped to his palm but it's power to match his. It was a way to amplify the destruction already flowing easily from him.

It was exactly what he would want in his hand if there was any trouble from the wolf familiar.

As he opened the door, the girl walked past him as if he was politely holding it for her. Even the ball of fluff trailed stupidly after her. “Take me to Hachimangu,” she demanded, causing a weak stomach cramp he was beginning to recognize as a command given in a good mood.

He sighed, unwilling to deal with the aftermath if he denied her out of spite. “It's not under your control, so you can't move in. The top war god actually runs it, but he only checks in with the shrine every few months. We get to use the backrooms as storage thanks to me.”

“What did you do?” Kayako asked, hardly disguising her trepidation towards the tale.

Her unguarded fear made him smirk. “The war god is an idiot with a grudge. He tried to fight me since he thought I was getting away with all the fun and horrible stuff I did a long time ago. He didn't win, and it hurt his pride so much that Hachiman could bully him around a little.”

“If he had power over the top war god, why didn't he take advantage of it?” the girl asked. When she spoke like that, completely honest and quite ruthless, he started to think that he might not want to kill her as soon as he could. He could at least toy with her until those damned beady eyes went moist and she forgot that steel spine she had.

“Hachiman's stupidly ethical like that. I wasn't able to influence him at all.” He huffed as the silence dragged on. He hated walking in silence, it was so gratingly boring. “Can the stupid fluff ball do anything yet?”

“A familiar's development is unpredictable.”

“So she's stupid?”

He got a glare for that, as though he had insulted the goddess' blood-related child. “She's has the most prestigious lineage a familiar can have. She can't be stupid.”

He chuckled just to see her ears turn red as her temper flared just a little. That was a sore spot he could spend years prodding.

***

If Umeko was anything, she was tidy. All the new boxes with the least amount of dust settled on them were perfectly organized, wrapped in newspaper, and labeled with their contents.

Akura-ou took perverse pleasure in messing absolutely all of it up, and grabbing the golden statuette of himself and three Tanuki girls in compromising positions. That was a gift, and it would be rude to part with it.

The girl wasn't interested in any of his things, but the jade dagger mounted on the wall did draw her attention. “This is a powerful artifact,” she noted stupidly.

“So it's not ours,” Akura-ou groaned. “It's part of the three really powerful things of something. There's a mirror and a dagger and a rock. We don't get to play around with any of them.”

“Did you honestly call the Imperial weapons 'powerful things of something?'” the girl said in a grave deadpan. Pointing out the obvious, again.

“I could take anyone, even if they're armed with those things, as long as I have this.” He lifted his club from the last box, allowing the bare bulb swaying above them to catch the golden dragons weaving around the thick black steel. “I hope I get to use this soon.”

“If you wave that around the wrong people in Izumo, I won't regret leaving you in their care,” Kayako hissed. Now that she had that stupid ball of fur, she had been a little too lenient towards him, and he was starting to understand why. She thought she didn't need him.

She would be proven wrong very soon.


	11. Quest 2 Unlocked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Izumo quickly becomes an interesting place.

She was losing worshipers. She hated watching the numbers dwindle, even after she went through the hassle of buying a cell phone plan just to create a twitter account for those wretched, selfish low-lives. Every lost worshiper was another battle lost in the latest Hiiragi civil war.

This bothered her more than ever as she read the log book again, thumbing through the pages and watching the visitor's lists grow shorter as Akura-ou's snores seemed to become louder and more grating.

Her other familiar, trapped in a pet crate in front of them, had finally stopped whining every time the bus pitched to the side or hit a pot hole. Akura-ou's annoying insinuations that her new familiar was somehow defective were beginning to sound annoyingly reasonable. It didn't speak, it didn't transform, it really wasn't different from any dog she had ever met except for its need to be by her side all the time. It slept on her pillow, it ran in circles around her heels. Kayako was beginning to think it would eat dog kibble as happily as it ate what Umeko cooked.

But she would find answers in Izumo.

***

Akura-ou had expected that his time in Izumo would not be pleasant, but for all his years enduring and creating the worst a man could suffer, he had not expected this.

“I think this cucumber mask is better than the brand it's a knock-off for,” Kayako twittered under a thick layer of green goop intentionally spread over her face.

The land god sorted through one of Kayako's smaller luggage bags like a child sorting through a toybox. An expensive toybox with pieces that defied common convention to understand. “Where did you say your exfoliating cream was?”

“It's in your hand,” the other goddess said, pointing at the white handled electronic with a circle of bristles at the side. “Put the dead sea salt cream on the bristles, turn it on, use it for 50 seconds, then moisturize.”

“...What button turns it on?” the land god shyly asked, turning the device over in her hands.

Akura-ou was faced with a moral dilemma as he caught the tale-tell scent of fox fire in his nose. He could make a clean escape now, and leave a traitor to their just rewards.

But even Akura-ou wasn't that cruel.

He let Tomoe reach the door, let him see that his little god was unharmed, before clapping him on the shoulder and guiding him the opposite way. “You haven't had to deal with shrine maidens, have you? Seriously, stay out of the way when girls start grouping together with their weird perfumes and rituals.”

“I find it hard to believe you have dealt with shrine maidens,” the fox said with a raised eyebrow, pulling his arm from Akura-ou's hand.

“Almost 30 of them, damned old pervert of a god. I killed surprisingly few of them.” The argument could be made in a few cases that he wasn't really responsible for the dead. At least he hadn't done something obvious enough to earn Hachiman's ire.

Kayako was putting on a nice face for her little rival, to lure her into a false sense of security. She had started talking about cosmetics and other strange cleaning methods soon after the land god found they would be sharing a temporary house for the next week. The girl hadn't suspected a thing, taken in by the foreign, girly language they shared.

Akura-ou could attempt the same for Tomoe, to pull a face and act a friend, but the irritating heat under his skin kept him from being composed enough to try.

He wasn't cruel, but he was honest. Forgiveness wasn't in his nature, and the fox would be a fool to believe so. The fox was no fool.

He was, however, soon accosted by a wind god materializing with arms wrapped around his shoulders. “Tomoe!” Otohiko squealed, giving Akura-ou enough time to get several steps between himself and the god. “If you weren't here, I'd think that OOkuninushi has lost his mind, sending that girl to watch the gate to Yomi no Kuni. I can rest easy knowing a capable familiar like you will be there.”

The wind god smirked at Akura-ou, dispelling any hope he had for remaining unnoticed.

“You haven't checked in with Tadashi yet, have you? She'll be excited to see you again. It might even cause her to have an expression on her face.”

“That sounds like someone else's problem,” Akura-ou grumbled as the land god ran out to meet them, her hair slightly wet and a streak of white cream still on the curve of her cheek. “Have fun running around in a dangerous land full of hostile natives, poison fumes, and death. I'll just stay here and get my nails painted by Kayako.”

The land god paled a little, for a moment making him wish that he could take her place. 500 years and a betrayal ago, he would have loved to run around Yomi no Kuni with Tomoe at his side.

Of course, there would be nothing nearly as fun as that on this boring trip to Izumo. He would probably wind up stealing wine from the gods and sleeping the days away in a room tucked away from the girls and the fox.

***

If that vein on her forehead didn't stop twitching from the effort she was putting into keeping that serene yet concerned face, he would probably burst out laughing.

_“How absolutely terrible,” Kayako cooed through gritted teeth. “I can't believe Nanami just fell into the land of the dead after tripping over her feet.”_

_“I know you're worried sick, since you two bonded so well after the mock trial,” OOkuninushi gushed, brushing away a non-existant tear. “Since you are the only other living god at the conference, and no other gods have the kind feelings for her that you do, I must ask that you retrieve Nanami from Yomi no Kuni. It shouldn't be so difficult, as Otohiko saw Tomoe jump in after her. Surely such a task is easy for someone as gifted as you, Kayako.”_

Her resolve was slipping, hands turning into fists as she marched towards the split boulder. “I'm doing this as a favor to Ookuninushi. Ookuninushi will owe me a favor after this,” she grumbled to herself, still ignoring Akura-ou's obvious glee.

An odd smell caught his nose, causing him to pause and breathe it in more deeply. It wasn't a good scent, but it was somehow familiar.

“Stop acting like a dog and jump in,” Kayako snapped, standing at the edge of the swirling portal to the land of the dead. “I want to get this over with.”

Akura-ou ignored her dour attitude, humming a tune as he rested his club over his shoulder. “Going to the land of the dead, killing some guys in the land of the dead - “

“ _Jump_ ,” Kayako growled, and he skipped first out of spite.


	12. Exit Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything that can go wrong, does.

Nothing but jagged rocks and no one but gaunt faced residents greeted them in Yomi no Kuni. The fox and land god had decided to make this trip difficult as they were no where near the entrance. With Kayako's mood continuing to sour, Akura-ou had been forced to stop blowing limbs off of the walking corpses and merely pushed brush out of his way, following the girl that continued to grumble to herself.

“Can't you make yourself useful and find those two idiots?” the girl demanded after being smacked with an errant branch.

“Why can't you, oh great psychic Hiiragi?”

He got the coldest glare he had received yet, but only the promise of pain as soon as they were back in Izumo. “This realm makes my second sight blind. It's hard enough to withstand this potent air, I can't do much more than this.”

A glimmer of light appeared as he feigned concern well enough to fool her. “Are you really okay being here? Isn't this dangerous for humans?”

“I'm a human god, I'll be fine.”

Oh, she thought she would. She wouldn't sound so high and mighty once she realized that Akura-ou had slipped into the brush, hoping their paths would never cross again.

***

"Dead. He's dead. I'm going to kill him, he is dead," Kayako grumbled, hands fisted at her sides. Why was she so surprised? That feckless, wretched beast would do this, a familiar would not. Even that idiot of a dog would at least follow her faithfully.

Just as Kayako felt like screaming again, just to exorcise the rage that was building beyond what her body could withstand, she saw a glow filtering through the thick underbrush. Her heart leaping at the sight, she started barreling towards it, the swats and scratches of the brush becoming painless in her desperation.

She barely stopped in time to avoid a ball of blue fire hurtling towards her. "What are you doing here?!" the fox familiar demanded, the other kitsunubi floating around him fluttering into nothingness.

"I'm supposed to rescue you and that idiot girl! You couldn't make it easy, could you?!" she shrieked, the horror of her near-death building upon the fear that had begun seeping into her as she realized Akura-ou had left her side. "Get that idiot and get us out of here!"

"Where is Akura-ou?"

"I don't care, get us out of here!" Kayako protested, calming only as she saw Tomoe's hands fist as he cursed.

"That bastard planned this, I know he did. To think he'd do this to Nanami..." the fox muttered, ignoring her.

"Why didn't you stay with that stupid girl?! Why isn't she here?!"

"He grabbed her and disappeared!" Tomoe yelled back. "That guy with the mask on his head was working with Akura-ou this entire time. I should have expected this, I knew he could hurt her but I didn't think he would, as a familiar."

"That beast is hardly a familiar," Kayako muttered. "I don't know how he did it, but he betrayed us both, and for that, he will face the wrath of both of us."

The fox's eyes narrowed as they met hers, fox fire springing back to life. "I don't promise to leave him alive for you to deal with."

"Nor do I," she agreed as they walked deeper into the woods.


	13. Travel Quest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything starts to come together, and also fall apart.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about playing dead, I'm a college student nearing the end of my collegiate career and I just finished finals week. I built a virtual domain relationship between a server and client, a 6 tabled database, wrote a 10 page essay on the relationship between practical Kabbalah and medieval medical science... I literally could not write anything for weeks. I have a few months off, and I'll be sure to repay all the lovely comments I've received in chapters. I'm just starting to get to the meat of the story.

“Akura-ou!” the woman cried out, waving her arms above her head. He had really hoped she wouldn't spot him yet, as he had been stalking between boulders to hide from her, but the land god had good eyes if not the use of her legs. “Akura-ou! I'm so glad to see you!”

That was a new sound, the sound of a trapped woman happy to see him. He even shouldered the club he was half-intent on using, the other half more rational than his usual whims. “Did that fox actually hobble you to keep you from running around, causing trouble? I should try that with Kayako.” Of course, if he ever did tie her legs with a charm to keep them immobile, he'd just kill her.

“There's a weird guy running around here. He pulled me into the portal and put this rope on my ankle, and now I can't move.” The land god's hands continued to pull against the charm, having made a surprising number of split fibers from her efforts.

A flick of the wrist cut it completely, earning him a doe-eyed smile.

“We need to find Tomoe before that guy gets back. He planned to use me as a distraction during the God conference, which is why he opened the portal to Yomi no Kuni.”

“That's a lot of effort for a distraction,” Akura-ou muttered, hoping the wits of this mysterious man could at least withstand his strength. “Splitting the boulder, I mean. You're pretty defenseless for a god.”

“I'm working on it,” the land god grumbled, pulling a white charm paper out of a pocket. “I'll use this to find Tomoe so we can get out of here.”

She made a few scrawling marks on the charm, but it did not so much fly as flutter downward like a leaf falling from a tree, rolling and tumbling across the ground, but still moving.

“That's weird, it's never done that before. It's supposed to fly towards him,” the land god muttered, able to follow the paper with a leisurely walk. The pace began to grate on Akura-ou's nerves, feeling hobbled himself.

Walking. There was a lot more walking involved in Izumo than he would have liked. He would probably start a fight with Tadashi or any other familiar, or anyone, just to break up the monotony. It was a pity the wisp of a land god would probably faint if he so much as growled at her. He put his hands behind his head, making sure his club was still strapped to his back. “Try another charm. Maybe that one's just slow by nature.”

She didn't quite believe his feeble fable, but scrawled up another charm, which trailed even slower than the first.

“Guess that didn't help,” he shrugged, reaching down to catch the slowest tumbling paper, stuffing it into a pocket.

If he was going to have to learn reading and writing, like Kayako kept threatening, he'd want to learn something that was interesting. Tomoe was always interesting, down to his stupid, girly name. Honestly, he was an orphan and could have chosen any name he wanted, but he chose a girl's name. Perhaps he wasn't the tough guy Akura-ou had spotted him for when they met. There was that incident outside of Onimachi...

Which the girl knew nothing about.

Akura-ou chuckled, grabbing the girl's attention. “Tomoe probably hasn't told you anything about his old romps, has he? There are some embarrassing stories that only he and I know about, mostly when he was drunk. There was this one time - “

The girl clapped her hands and beamed at him. “That's right, you were friends a long time ago!”

His eyes narrowed a bit. To think that speaking over him was enough to warrant a bloody death only a few centuries ago, now tiny human girls were doing it. “Yes, we were brothers. There was this time that I - “

“I apologize on his behalf,” she said, stopping to bow at the waist. “I think he really does feel sorry about trying to kill you, but he's too proud to say it. You were obviously very good friends - ”

He probably could have been a little more gentle when he grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up to standing, but he could honestly feel something snapping underneath his skin, strained by every word coming out of the girl's mouth. “Good friends, huh?” The girl's eyes couldn't get much wider, but still managed to keep his gaze. “We weren't friends, little god. We were brothers. We were sworn brothers. I wasn't killed by a good friend, I was killed by _my brother_.”

She bared her teeth and winced, making him realize that he was still pulling her hair as he spoke. He let her go, allowing her to run her hand over her head, massaging her injury with a pout that had no right to make him feel even the slightest bit guilty.

Though it did. “He doesn't feel bad about it. I don't care. You better keep out of that old stuff anyway, if you care even a little bit about Tomoe.” If a stupid little girl like her managed to unearth the old curse hanging like a blade to his brother's neck, she'd wish he would kill her, but he wouldn't. He'd do much worse. “Embarrassing stories about Tomoe,” he began, clearing his throat. “It was a dark and stormy night, and we were drunk. Tomoe was still shorter than me, so he was drunker, and there was this war lord we were going to kill - “

If there was anything that could teach Akura-ou fear, it was fox fire. It didn't burn like normal flames, it didn't consume. It devoured, it tortured. It was a malicious thing, the smell of it alone enough to make him twitchy, but seeing it made the centuries roll back, fading to that day forever burned in his bones. He dodged the fire, he knows he did, but he could still feel it on his skin, feeling wind howling out of his throat because he couldn't stop from screaming, it hurt him. It hurt so much, he couldn't possibly stand it.

But he withstood it, eyes wide as he forced himself to suck in a breath, remembering to hold it in his chest like Hachiman taught him after that battle with a rogue kitsune. He had to hold onto it, keep breath from gasping out hard and fast, keep his blood from racing through his veins fast enough to make him feel like breaking apart.

The white charm tumbled upwards to the hill Tomoe was descending, running towards him with murder in his eyes. Perhaps he remembered that day, remembered the last woman Akura-ou took from him. He was calling for the land god, a call she answered as she raced towards him.

The fox wasn't alone, Kayako standing at the top of the ridge. She wasn't looking down at them, though.

She looked over her shoulder, at the War God and his host marching towards them.


	14. Dungeon Level

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akura-ou and Kayako tell each other what they really think.

It was entirely too familiar. The cell, its musty smell, the chains wrapped around his body, forcing his hands behind his back and his knees to bend, kneeling for hours. The stupid psychic didn't release him from the command to kneel, even after they secured him in Izumo's dungeons. She cast him a look, a look he couldn't quite read, and left him there.

 

They probably haven't cleaned the cell since he was released so many centuries ago. He strained his neck looking around to see if there were still ashes left by the burned bones they had carried in the last time.

 

He was bored. So bored.

 

That was probably how Hachiman got him, catching him when he was about to worry through his tongue with his own teeth just to see how far he could spit it out. He would do anything that wasn't sitting in the dark, making his knees ache and skin itch. He hated this, always hated idle hands and idle thoughts. The next thing that came through that door, he was going to lunge at. It wasn't even a decision at this point, he knew he was just going to hurl himself towards the bars and hope he earned a frightened scream.

 

A sliver of light made him tumble forward, still frozen and kneeling, to introduce his face to the cement floor as his nose cracked and blood clogged his nostrils.

 

Nothing. He didn't even get a gasp, so he knew who it was.

 

“Sit up.” He did so, shutting his eyes before he snorted, splattering blood down his chin and even to his chest.

 

Kayako didn't even flinch. He didn't even know if he liked her for that or not.

 

“Just exactly how stupid are you?”

 

“I'm smart enough not to tell you,” he answered. That was always the trick to it. Everyone treated him like he was a leather bound sack of whims, rushing to crush his skull against anything directly in front of him, but if he wanted to have a plan, he'd have one.

 

He didn't have a plan, but he did enjoy butting heads with the war goddess.

 

It worked, and she narrowed her beady eyes at him. “You're not stupid enough to trust this thief, are you? He doesn't need you at this point. He could defeat you now.”

 

“Are you saying I've gone soft? People have been killed for less. I should know, I killed them.”

 

The girl sent a shiver down his spine as she cracked a smile, looking at him with half-lidded eyes. “I might miss this sometimes, when I have a loyal, capable familiar. It's not like I have any say in it, though. Ookunushi has decided to strip you from your body and seal your spirit to a rock, then focus on your little friend.”

 

“Tomoe hasn't done anything, you saw him try to kill me earlier.”

 

“Two days ago,” Kayako corrected. “They haven't brought you anything to eat, have they? And in this cell, you can't tell whether it's night or day. You must be bored out of your mind, not even allowed to take note of how little time you have left. Maybe you could count the seconds, if you knew how.”

 

“Smug brat,” he growled. “You think this is the last time we'll talk? Oh, we'll talk. I'll get out of here, I always do, and when I do, you'll be the first to know about it. Not that you'll be able to talk about it.”

 

He was going to win this one, just win this one time if it was the last one he'd have.

 

“I'll take your tongue and your lips first, so you can't stop the screaming. I'm going to peel you like an orange and just rip apart the soft bits inside. I was too fast with the last one, tried to make it too pretty. I've learned my lesson in 500 years.”

 

Her eyes were blank. “You're going to die, Akura-ou. Unable to move, unable to speak. It will drive you mad.” She brushed the dust off her shoulders as she looked down at him one more time. “It's not like you'll be able to get out of it, but I thought you should know.”

 

That smug little brat finally shook free of her little tremors and horrified little gasps. She turned on her heel and left him back in the dull, draining darkness.

 

He'd might end up missing her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that whole school thing I thought I was done with? Not actually done with. But I have a double update to celebrate my country not being an asshole in preventing my marrying anyone.


	15. Kicked From Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plans change.

Nanami was stupid.

 

Kayako wasn't going to be able to take much more of it.

 

She had to hold her dog familiar to keep it from nipping at Tomoe's fox tail, and her irritation with the two puppy-eyed beings in the room was growing by the minute.

 

“I think you guys should listen, since I'm the only one who's seen the guy who did it -”

 

“It doesn't matter if we listen, the matter is up to the other gods,” the psychic tried to say politely, though it sounded quite strained. She was dealing with a child, a pouting, insolent child and Tomoe was able to ignore it only because Kayako was taking the brunt of this stupid argument. She was being too nice to the fox, held from betraying him only because she could unleash her stupid little familiar on his tail at any moment.

 

“He's still your familiar. You're not really going to let him get stripped away and destroyed, are you? He's really rude and mean, but he's not that bad.”

 

The dog turned his head and bit down hard, yipping proudly as it ran to attack Tomoe while Kayako hissed. “You have the same bad taste in men as your mother did.”

 

The psychic caught Nanami's saddening look and a glare from Tomoe before deciding to excuse herself to the night air.

 

She knew Akura-ou wasn't involved in the theft of the Imperial weapons. He didn't play well with others, so the hidden man behind it all couldn't be acting in tandem with him, despite that threatening note claiming to free him from his divine bonds.

 

Kayako also knew that implicating the beast would set her free from him. She had wanted that all along, wanted to get away from his sharp teeth and sharper talons. He was a beast, one that shouldn't be trusted. She was always going to be his prey, no matter the bonds she had on him. He wasn't something that could be tamed.

 

The moonlight caught her eye as it shone off light blue, almost silvery hair. The wolf familiar, Tadashi, moved between two houses across the dirt road, but before reaching the next house she stopped, as if feeling Kayako's gaze. The psychic caught a smirk on the familiar's face before she turned around and resumed her path.

 

The blood in Kayako's veins suddenly ran cold.

 


	16. NPC Dialogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akura-ou has a visitor, then a revelation. Kayako meets an enemy, and gains a question.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I started this a year ago, didn't I?
> 
> Yes, I gave up on this fic. Things got really awesome and then really terrible for me, but I'm getting on a better track now. All the kudos and comments I've gotten have always brightened my day. I have a folder for all of the notifications I get in my email.
> 
> I started working on another Kayako/Akura-ou AU before tonight, but then I happened to read a particular comment on this fic. "I read all 15 chapters in one sitting! Please update!"
> 
> Thank you, Natcha, and all my lovely subscribers. I've been a butt. You're always as awesome as ever.

Hachiman wasn’t here. Akura-ou felt someone’s eyes on him, on the other side of the dungeon bars, but he knew it wasn’t Hachiman. He knew no one but Hachiman would care.

  
He still cast a look over his shoulder, out of sheer boredom. He didn’t know this guy, or thing, sitting on its knees while staring unblinkingly at him. Matted yellow fur or hair at the top, odd grey eyes, ridiculous feudal wear. This guy was disturbing him in more ways than he could name if given a day.

  
“Akura-ou-sama,” the man spoke, still not blinking.

  
“Hairy-guy.”

  
The man’s face split with a grin, eyes watering. “You acknowledged me, great Akura-ou-sama! As your most faithful vassal, only one thing could make me happier than I am in this beautiful moment!”

  
Ah. A fan. That’s what was disturbing. “Disneyworld’s in Tokyo, knock yourself out,” Akura-ou grumbled, facing the wall again.

  
“It saddens Yatori to see Akura-ou-sama like this. You were chained so long, a lesser being would give up hope completely. Lord, you must trust that I am here to serve you! I am here to free you!”

  
“Is that why you’re too much of a coward to come here yourself?” the oni growled, deciding to put forth the effort in sitting up and taking a look at the false image of the man.

  
The face split further, almost looking genuine. “Great Akura-ou-sama! You have seen through the illusion of the Imperial Mirror! I would expect no less from the greatest warlord the world has never deserved!”

  
The demon’s ass was starting to chafe, and not from the mossy bricks of the cellar. “Stop mumbling about how great I am as if I’m too stupid to know that! What makes you think I have any use for you?” He chuckled, blustering further. “If I’m chained as you say, it’s what I want. I’m getting tired of that brat and the boredom of this age. If the Gods make war against me, something interesting and bloody will happen. Let them come here to tear me apart, and I’ll show them how you do it.”

  
The man clapped like a child, so giddy with his words. “Akura-ou-sama! I have no doubts! If you set your gaze to Izumo, the Gods would crumble to their knees!”

  
“You’re damn right,” Akura-ou continued. They would, wouldn’t they? They might be strong gales, but Akura-ou’s body was a mountain. They tried before, they couldn’t win.

They never could.

  
“If Lord Akura-ou does…”

  
The overflow of joy melted into the shadows around the man, and the room got suddenly colder. Akura-ou blistered, angry in response. “Eh?”

  
“Akura-ou-sama was so gravely hurt back then. One could even say he did die…”

  
The rage in his blood went as ice cold as the air in the room. “What?”

  
“It was common knowledge that the kitsune and Akura-ou-sama were close. The kitsune was only able to compare due to Akura-ou-sama’s careful instruction, sharpening him to such a great weapon. A lord should trust their sword, but this one wasn’t trustworthy…”

  
“The fox has nothing to do with me anymore,” the oni argued, eyes scanning the room. He had a good idea where the source was, but he wouldn’t be able to reach it without a tool.

  
“The great lord was impaled by that sword. Fire could not kill Akura-ou, but his brother? He could do it.”

  
“Come here and I’ll show you how dead I am!” Akura-ou roared, springing to his feet. “You cowardly whelp! You think I’m chained and dead?! Give me a hair and I would raze this world to ruin! It’s mine to do what I will, this trash only lives to bleed and amuse me! Give me your flesh if you want to serve me, and perhaps your screaming will make me laugh!”

  
Ah, it felt good. For a moment, the walls melted, the girl’s beady eyes melted, and he could almost feel the warmth of sticky blood around his arms.

  
“Akura-ou-sama!” The man cried, hands clasped together, again in ecstasy. “I live to serve this Akura-ou-sama!”

  
“This Akura-ou-sama,” the oni growled, finding a rusted remainder of chain tucked in the shadows near the wall. “Will destroy you.”

  
The chains shattered immediately as he swung them through the bars against the floor, cracking a forgotten shard of glass resting between two bricks into dust. The image of the man met his eyes before it faded away.

  
Hairy-guy wouldn’t dream of it being any other way.

  
A smile tugged at his lips, and something odd happened in his stomach. Where it was cramped and bruised by a rude little human, it trembled, pulling breath in and out quickly. He quickly covered his mouth to keep anyone, even himself, from hearing him laughing.

  
Perhaps he was chained. Perhaps he had been dead.

  
Perhaps he was drawing his first breath one more time.

**********

Tadashi met her outside the gate to the grand mansion of the current war god, Ikusagumi, as if to keep riff-raff such as Kayako and her familiar from disturbing the immaculate garden with their filthy presence.

  
“It is an okami.” The blue-haired woman spoke, staring down at the blonde furball that seemed absolutely enthralled by her gaze. Kayako had never seen the dog go so still.

  
“Did you think Otohiko-gami was lying just for kicks?” Kayako asked dead-pan, meeting the same blank gaze as the fully realized familiar.

  
“It would be part of a game they play,” Tadashi answered, picking the puppy up to stare it in the eye. “It would be useless to explain it to you. What is her name?”

  
Stupid. Failure. Disappointment. “Atsuko.”

  
Smoke clouded into existence around Tadashi’s arms, until a small blonde girl with pointed ears and a plain white juban was left in her hands. “Are you Atsuko?” Tadashi asked, ignoring the wide eyed shock written across the psychic’s face.

  
The little girl twisted around to Kayako, revealing big blue eyes and round features. “Kaya-mom?” Her bushy blonde tail wagged happily.

  
Kayako was still stunned. “How did you do that?!”

  
Tadashi held the child towards Kayako, stirring her from her state after a moment so that she could take the small girl into her arms. “The child needs more energy than a human can provide. If you keep her, she will die.” The wolf turned back towards the mansion. “I will not train her.”

  
The child burned hot, supernaturally so, and wriggled out of Kayako’s grasp. “Kaya-mom is good! Aka-nii says Atsuko is dumb! Atsuko is bad, Kaya-mom is good!”

  
“Atsuko,” the psychic gasped, dropping to her knees as she pulled what had been a ball of fur under her care into a tight embrace, ignoring the still rising heat. “Atsuko-chan, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

  
The heat receded under Tadashi’s cold stare, baring down on the two of them. Kayako closed her eyes, remembering that warm little soul she ripped from its shell in the park. It was safe, it was happy, and now? It suffered under her touch, as much as if she meant to hurt it. This poor little girl, used again and again by Kayako for her selfish goals. How could she be more cruel?

  
“You’re not dumb, Atsuko-chan. You’re perfect, you’re so perfect.” So much more than she deserved. She was meant for that cruel warlord, wasn’t she? Every time she tried to escape him, she faced a mirror that showed his wicked teeth and gleaming eyes.

  
“Human,” Tadashi spoke softly, “In changing her appearance to a human, has that caused you to love this child so impulsively?”

  
“No,” Kayako, answered firmly, pausing after the little girl disappeared again in a cloud of weak smoke. “You’re right. I knew you were right. I knew I couldn’t keep her, but I wanted…” To be free. To be powerful. To be loved. Those pure blue eyes that she saw, even for a second, held all of that. It was a simple truth that Kayako could never catch that glance again. She was too weak.

  
The wolf familiar knelt down, ignoring Kayako’s tears as they streamed willfully across her cheeks. The puppy pressed its nose upwards, until Tadashi knelt and pressed her own back, closing her eyes. Kayako watched, knowing that this child was everything that Kayako had ever wanted. She could reach out and grab it, refuse to let that child go until it withered under her palm. Could she do that to such an innocent child?

  
She could. Atsuko was still in arm’s reach.

  
But she didn’t.

  
“Are you broken, pitiful human?” Tadashi asked, all but mockingly. For a moment, Kayako nearly said yes, but the bone that wound touched did not yield. She at least had that much, enough, to meet the wolf’s gaze with steely hatred.

  
“No.”

  
“I will look after this child until you answer my question,” the blue-haired woman said coldly, cradling the puppy in her arms. Atsuko growled at first, then visibly relaxed in the power that the familiar radiated.

  
“I’m not broken,” Kayako yelled, rising to her feet. “If I’m not powerful enough, I’ll become so! I’ve grown stronger than any Hiiragi before me. I’m stronger than a human, and I will be as strong as a god! Give me back Atsuko!”

  
The wolf’s lips twitched, in a way Kayako almost missed, before speaking. “You did not answer my question. When you do so, I will give the familiar to you, and tell you how to keep it.”

  
Kayako’s rage cooled like burning ore into steel. She remembered exactly what that wolf looked like, every intonation of every word she said and every facial muscle that refused to give away any emotion at all.

  
“Who brought Tomoe to the mountain where he tried to kill Akura-ou?”

**Author's Note:**

> I finally decided to post my little AU after getting great feedback from my other posts. Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoy~


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